Mage Trained Kitsune
by Takaiteishu Naruto
Summary: A stranger arrives at Konoha. With him he brings strange and powerful jutsus. Shortly after, Konoha enters an alliance with a group of nonhumans. As that occurs, that stranger trains one of the students at the ninja Academy. That student is Uzumaki Naruto
1. How it All Began

Summary: A stranger arrives at Konoha. With him he brings strange and powerful jutsus. Shortly after, Konoha enters an alliance with a group of nonhumans. As that occurs, that stranger trains one of the students at the ninja Academy. That student is Uzumaki Naruto, Jinchurichi of the Kyuubi no Kitsune. That stranger is Lintheion, Blood Elf Mage of the Horde. NarutoWorld of Warcraft crossover.

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Normally, guard duty is a boring assignment. You just stand around all day, look at papers, and stare at a dusty road all day. Today however, there was something interesting going on at the North Gate. A strange man in flowing robes on top of a very strange bird rode up to the gate and said, "I am an ambassador to Konoha from Warchief Thrall. I was sent to talk to your…Hokage I believe is the name of your leader?"

"Yes, but who in the world is Thrall and what is a Warchief?" One of the guards asked.

"I am not to tell anyone other than your Hokage any more than what I just have."

"It is alright, I've been expecting him," a voice from behind the two guards said, causing the two to turn around.

"From the fancy get up, I'd say you're an important member of the government here," the stranger said while nodding to the new arrival.

"My name is Sarutobi, I am the Hokage of Konoha."

The stranger then got off his strange bird and pulled out a crystal as the bird poofed into smoke and disappeared. Seeing the curious looks of the shinobi around him, he held up the crystal he had taken out and explained, "Special kind of crystal combined with some sealing and you have an easy way to transport a mount in places that they couldn't normally go. It puts them in suspended animation so that you don't need to worry about them dieing of hunger or thirst. I've got another one for a nether drake but he can't exist in this atmosphere yet, I've been working on a way to make it so that he could."

"Anyway, shall we go to my office?"

The stranger smiled before nodding and following the Hokage to the Hokage Tower. As they headed there, the stranger noticed a hyper blur go by before being followed by three more blurs. He turned to his companion before saying, "This scene reminds me of a young blood elf I once knew. The blood elf was a notorious prankster."

"Ah yes, Uzumaki Naruto, our infamous prankster and a damned good one at that, pardon my language. He has become good enough that the village ANBU have a course dedicated to just catching him after a prank."

_'It seems I have found the perfect candidate to continue my legacy,'_ the Konoha visitor thought.

After a few more minutes of walking, they arrived at a large tower and walked up several more flights of stairs until they arrived at an office. The stranger looked around the office and sweat dropped at the large pile of paperwork on the desk.

"Tell me, does anyone ever read those?" he asked while pointing at the large piles.

"No, but I have to do them anyway," the Hokage replied.

The stranger grinned before his hand lit up in flames as the flames flew over to the paperwork and burned them to ashes without harming the desk. Sarutobi stared at the ashes, then stared at the one who was responsible, then turned back to the ashes, then back to the stranger again. The stranger then had a difficult time breathing as he was enveloped in a bone crushing hug (or it would have been for him if he hadn't developed a spell that strengthened bones and basically made you a pain in the ass to kill).

"I…do…need…to…breathe you…know," he wheezed out.

"Oh sorry, I really need to learn that," Sarutobi replied.

"Well their's something along those lines in part of the treaty I was given by my Lord Thrall. Anyway, down to business. Part of what Lord Thrall would like is trade privileges. We bring weapons and armor of various kinds and with various enchantments. In exchange, our livestock have been contracting disease much more often than usual lately so we would request foodstuffs. I am also personally aware that some of the population would like to try some new kind of cuisine. There is only so much you can get in a desert nation.

"Another portion of the treaty would be a brief exchange of military. Some of your ninja would do missions for us, while we in exchange would send troops of various professions to perform jobs for you. A second portion would be one of our youths coming to learn your techniques while one of your youths would learn skills from us. I personally volunteered to be the one to instruct one of your youths and later today I would like to view your most promising youths so that I may choose my pupil. Should war occur here, we will send aid as well expect the same should we ask for it, if you were to accept you would become the sixth group to make up the Horde," the stranger then started some motions for a brief moment before pausing and glancing up at Sarutobi and asking, "Mind if I get something to drink?"

"No go ahead," Sarutobi replied. What did a drink have to do with the motions he had started?

"Thank you," he then continued and one of the pouches on his belt seemed to swell as he reached in and pulled out a vial of clear liquid. He popped the cork off and drank the entire vial before tossing it over his shoulder, disappearing in midair. He took out another one and held it towards Sarutobi and asked, "Water? It's darn near the only thing I can drink; I have a low alcohol tolerance."

"Thank you," Sarutobi said before taking the vial and sniffing it and taking a sip. Once the water touched his tongue, his eyes widened as he tasted the coolest and best tasting water he ever had.

"Anyway, what do you think about the treaty? If you accept the terms above will be put into effect and Konoha will officially become a part of the Horde."

"Where do I sign?"

The stranger smiled before reaching into a pouch and taking out a scroll with all of the above terms and five other signatures on it. Sarutobi read the treaty carefully and then looked at the signed names and raised an eyebrow at them, before signing his own.

The stranger smiled before rolling up the scroll and whirling it around, causing it to disappear and Sarutobi wonder if he needed glasses.

"There, Thrall now has the scroll, and Konoha is a part of the Horde. I now have a few personal requests," the stranger replied.

"Before that, may I at least know your name?" Sarutobi asked.

"Ah, it is Lintheion. Anyway, my request is actually two things. I would like to take my apprentice, our term for student, to various lands across the world to further his training, experience, and knowledge. My other request is that I know _everything_ about the student I choose. If you would like, you may watch when I am telling my apprentice about the history of the Horde. I will do that here in Konoha."

"I would like that. Shall we go to the Academy so you may choose your, apprentice was it?"

"Yes, and I would like that."

Sarutobi led Lintheion to the Academy and entered the class with nearly all the clan heirs. At the same time, a brown haired man with a scar across his nose was dragging a tied up blonde in an orange jumpsuit into the classroom.

"Alright, now that Naruto is here, we can listen to Hokage-sama's statement. I assume that is why you are here Hokage-sama?" the man with the scar asked.

"Yes, Konoha has just entered an alliance with a large, multinational group known as the Horde. Konoha is the first of the shinobi nations to do so, and one of the requirements was that one of their youths was to come here to learn ninja techniques, and one of our youths would learn their fighting style from Ambassador Lintheion here," Sarutobi explained to the students.

"I should tell you though; my student will only learn one of the styles that the Horde uses. I would be the equivalent of someone who uses almost all ninjutsu and no taijutsu. There are some that use only weapons and I have bested and been bested them in spars multiple times. There are others who can tame beasts and are excellent at long range. I am almost entirely a long distance user with a few abilities designed to freeze nearby opponents in place. As a final word, _I_ will choose my student based on personality, motivation, determination, and potential. If you are not picked, do not go whining to mom and dad because nothing anyone else will say can change my mind," Lintheion warned.

Lintheion then spent the rest of the day observing the students. A few he crossed out easily. Inzuka Kiba was too much of a close combatant for his style, Haruno Sakura had the smarts for it, but her entire personality revolved around Uchiha Sasuke. The Uchiha kid was also thrown out because he had a worse personality than some of the Lich King's minions. And considering that the Lich King's minions were all mindless undead that was saying a lot. Nara Shikamaru was far too lazy, even though from his observations he had a brilliant strategic mind. The Nara boy's friend Choji was also unfitted to his style like the Inzuka. The Yanamaka girl was just far too loud in his opinion and gossipy. So far he had narrowed it down to Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata, and Aburame Shino. The only reason for the Aburame kid was that he had almost no information from his observations; the boy was just too quiet. Hyuuga Hinata seemed to have a confidence problem, but he or a couple of his friends could easily change that. The Uzumaki brat…was interesting.

Out of the entire group, he had the most potential and raw mana, but was loud. He was a prankster, and that was always a plus in his book. His most glaring faults were the outfit he wore and his loudness. He would observe the three and figure out more from their home lives.

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Lintheion opened his eyes from his meditation and frowned. He had used a spell to spy on the three candidates throughout the rest of the day and was not pleased. He had chosen his apprentice, but one of the others was in serious need of help. He'd talk about it with Sarutobi.

He stood up and stretched his back as stiff joints popped. He had been sitting down for six hours and he was stiff. He opened the door and walked out of the room Sarutobi let him borrow for his spell and headed to the man's office and sat in front of the man after burning the man's paperwork again.

"You know, there was actually something there I needed that time," Sarutobi said calmly.

"So get another copy," Lintheion remarked. If there was one thing you were to ask his peers (the ones that were alive or had their minds anyway) growing up it was that he was the biggest smart ass in Quel-Thalas. He had mellowed out over the years and the destruction of his home land by Arthas, but he did still have his moments.

"I assume that you have your student chosen?"

"Yes, but there is one other thing… The Hyuuga girl."

"She is your student?"

"No. But she needs help, badly. The spell I used allowed me to watch them as they went about their daily lives and that girl is in serious need of help."

"Well perhaps her family…"

"Her father is the reason she is a stuttering basket case, no offense to her, just because she isn't good in a style that doesn't suit her. I am an outsider with little knowledge about shinobi techniques but even _I_ can see that she doesn't fit the style her _father_ wants her to.

"I do however know of someone who could help her, and I believe that her style would suit little Hinata well. Her name is Droga. She is a shaman and tends to favor both elemental combat and restoration, healing I believe it is called here. I know that it wasn't mentioned in the treaty, but I think I can figure out a way to make it work."

"I could also appeal to the council's desire to have powerful shinobi. May I ask who your apprentice is going to be?" Sarutobi asked.

"Uzumaki Naruto. I will begin teaching him tomorrow. Because of the intense training methods I will be needing to use, do not expect him to return to the Academy. With a bit of luck, he will be up to your Chuunin level by the time the Academy takes its graduation exam."

"Do you think you can do that in one year? Most normal genin choose to wait until they have been genin for about five years before taking the Chuunin Exam."

"Trust me old man, I have slain demons more powerful than you before. For two years I had to teach a bunch of snot-nosed brats to be strong enough to do the same. I've developed a method that works. There is one more thing; I want _all_ information on my apprentice. Including the reason that the villagers call him a demon, bastard fox, and that you should have killed him several years ago."

Sarutobi winced. There was no way he was sneaking his way out of this. He sighed before deciding to spill the beans as they say.

"Twelve years ago, a monstrous demon fox by the name of Kyuubi attacked. A demon as powerful as him can not be killed, so my predecessor/successor the Fourth sealed him into an infant, Naruto. The Fourth wished for him to be treated as a hero, but sadly, the villagers only see him as the demon reincarnated. I made a law saying that none may speak of the fact that Naruto contains the Kyuubi other than Naruto or me."

"Huh, you were wrong about one part. There is nothing that can't be killed. Maybe not by any one mortal, but anything can be killed. There is a massive, inter-dimensional army of demons called the Burning Legion led by the Dark Titan Sargeras. About five years ago, one of his most powerful lieutenants Archimonde arrived on this world. He is dead."

"H-how? I was able to feel a foul power for several months about five years ago, but it suddenly disappeared."

"The night elves sacrificed their immortality and the World Tree Nordasill. That was able to kill Archimonde, and several hundred acres of forest," Lintheion muttered the last part.

"Anyway, now that you know about Naruto's burden, I will send you a file containing all of the information we have on him. Where will you be staying?"

"Well, since I'm still officially an ambassador, I was thinking about heading around town and try to find a good hotel or apartment for later visits. I kind of like the local scenery. See you later, and no spying when I'm training Naruto."

With that, the ambassador to the Horde left to find a place to crash for the night. Since it was fairly late, he just rented a hotel room and flopped onto the bed after getting out of his robes.

The next day, Lintheion opened his eyes and sat up in his bed before stretching his back to hear a few pops. He then rolled his neck to hear a few more pops and sighed before conjuring up some breakfast. Once he finished, he sat down to figure out whether or not to look for a place to stay first or fetch his apprentice.

A blur by his window gave him his answer for him. Apprentice it is then! He could always go looking for an apartment in his spare time. He dressed in a different set of robes and cast a spell that had become second nature to him now. Shoving away a shiver, he left the hotel room and set off to find his unknowing apprentice.

Naruto chuckled as he started setting up his prank. Just as he was about to lay the first wire, a voice said, "Are you planning on setting up a prank?"

Naruto froze and slowly turned around to see the man that observed his class yesterday looking at him while leaning against the wall of a building. Naruto started to sweat, expecting this man to call him a demon and start beating him up just like everyone else.

"If so your method is too sloppy, allow me," the man said while kneeling down to where Naruto was setting up his prank and made some lightning fast adjustments before standing up and making some arm motions he didn't recognize before smirking.

He then grabbed Naruto and dragged him away to his hotel room and started to fix something up for them to eat. While he had already eaten he could tell that his student needed something. After whipping up some scrambled eggs and some bacon, and watching his guest scarf them down, there was a loud cry of surprise and the tone one makes when another shoves ice down their shirt.

"I believe my prank has just gone off," Lintheion said with a smirk.

"You know, I didn't pin you as the prankster type yesterday at the Academy," Naruto said as he patted his belly.

Lintheion scoffed before replying, "Please, I was once known as the Greatest Prankster Ever to Live in Quel'Thalas. Once I began my Mage training, I started adding those skills into my pranks. I had to stop about five years ago though," Lintheion trailed off with a sad look on his face.

"What happened?" Naruto asked softly, recognizing the pain on Lintheion's face.

"I'll tell you in your history lessons."

"History lessons?"

"Yes, didn't I tell you? I've chosen you to be my new apprentice."

Naruto's cry of joy could be heard all the way in Northrend where a man by the name of Arthas looked up and said, "I could have swore I heard something just now, oh well."

Once Lintheion and the rest of Konoha regained their hearing, Lintheion walked over to Naruto and placed his hand on the boy's shoulder before saying, "Come, time to make the apprenticeship official. We will need to go to the Hokage tower and Sarutobi had asked to sit in on the first few lessons. They will be detailing the history of the world from our point of view and even off this world."

Naruto stared at his sensei, normally he didn't like history, but all he had ever heard from it was droning lectures. Lintheion-sensei though seemed like the kind of person that could make learning fun.

Without realizing it, they were in the Hokage's office. Lintheion walked in and once again burned the Hokage's paperwork. Sarutobi sighed and looked up before asking, "First lessons?"

"Yes, if you wish I can do it here and display some parts of history directly into your minds. For the rest, I will conjure up illusions while I tell you what happened.

"Our first section will be about before the creation of the world, I only have access to this information because of some friends of mine are history buffs like me and gain the information from some of their otherworldly sources. Anyway, several thousand years ago, there was a group of deities simply known as the Titans. They traveled the universe creating worlds and life. Eventually, they noticed that some of their previous worlds were being destroyed by an army of demons that called themselves the Burning Legion. The Titans sent their greatest warrior, Sargeras, to destroy or lock away the demonic army. As he did so, his heart became embittered by the acts he saw. Eventually he was driven mad and turned against those he once called friends. He released the demons he himself imprisoned and became their leader.

"Twenty five thousand years ago, Sargeras found the planet of Argus populated by a magically and technologically advanced race that called themselves Eredar. He made their three leaders, Archimonde, Kil'Jaden, and Velen, an offer. He would give them immense power, more than they could ever imagine, if they swore loyalty to him. Only Velen saw through his offers of power, power that would turn them into demons. He took a small group and fled Argus, aided by a race of beings known as the Naruu. Velen and his followers became known as Draenei, the Exiled Ones in their native tongue.

"Ten thousand years ago, the Titans created this world, and placed a pool of magical energy in the center of it. The race of beings known as the night elves created a magical civilization around the pool and named it the Well of Eternity. Eventually, a group of night elves that were the queen's most powerful servants, known as the Highborne, that brought the demons of the Burning Legion here. There was a war, called the War of the Ancients, which destroyed the Well of Eternity and banished the Burning Legion back to the dark hole they crawled out of. The world was split into two large continents: Kalimdor and Azeroth. We are on Kalimdor, and we believe that shinobi first came here two or three centuries ago.

"Less than half a century ago, the orcs and draenei lived peacefully on the world of Dreanor. However, the now demon Kil'Jaden slowly corrupted the most respected of the orc shaman, Ner'Zul. Overtime the orcs, with the exception of the Frostwolf clan and Orgrim Doomhammer, were corrupted and nearly wiped out the last of the draenei. Over time, the corruption of the demons turned Draenor into a wasteland, and the orcs built a portal to this world and made war upon the humans of Stormwind. The orcs managed to push the humans north to their sister kingdom of Lordaeron. After a long war, the humans reclaimed Lordaeron and pushed the orcs back through the portal. The new orcish leader of the warlocks, spellcasters who summons demons of the Burning Legion, Gul'Dan opened multiple portals to different worlds, trying to receive aid. The force of the dimensional energies ripped the planet apart, sending the floating remains into the abyss of the Twisting Nether. It is now called Outland, and ruled by Illadin Stormrage.

"Shortly after Draenor was destroyed, Thrall, son of the clan head of the Frostwolves Durotan, became the new Warchief and restored the orc's shamanistic heritage. After freeing the orcs from internment camps he was greeted by a prophet. He was told to go west, to the forgotten lands of Kalimdor. He gathered his forces and did as he was asked. He picked up some allies in the Darkspear jungle troll clan. While that was happening, Arthas, prince of Lordaeron and paladin, was investigating a plague that was affecting his people. He discovered that it was being spread through the grain people were eating, and turning them into undead minions of the Lich King. Arthas encountered and followed the dreadlord Mal'Ganis north to the Roof of the World Northrend. He obtained the runeblade Frostmourne and used it to slay Mal'Ganis. Arthas is an example of what could happen if you become consumed with revenge. His soul was stolen by Frostmourne and he destroyed his father's kingdom."

Lintheion paused and took a shaky breath as unshed tears started to form in his eyes, clearly the next portion was a painful memory.

"He then marched against Quel'Thalas, kingdom of the high elves. He nearly wiped out their entire race. He took the remains of the necromancer Kel'Thuzad to the source of the high elves' power, the mystical Sunwell, a pool that was all that remained of the Well of Eternity, brought there by the remaining Highborne sorcerers thousands of years ago, when the night elves shifted to the arts of the druid. He used the Sunwell's energy to return Kel'Thuzad to this realm as a lich.

"I was there. I was there as Arthas nearly wiped out my entire race. I was there as his undead minions ripped my wife and child to pieces. I was there as that bastard killed my sister then turned her into a banshee. My little relief in that is that I can now speak to her in the Forsaken Royal Quarter. My little sister is Sylvanas, the Banshee Queen of the Forsaken, a group of undead that have freed themselves from the Lich King's control.

"Anyway, the Burning Legion as well as the human sorceress Jaina Proudmore made their way to Kalimdor, in time to meet Thrall and his new allies, the Taruen. Thrall, Jaina, and Tyrande and Malfurion, leaders of the night elves, formed an alliance against the Burning Legion and managed to banish the general that had come to this world, Archimonde. In doing so however the night elves sacrificed their immortality.

"Illadin Stormrage, brother of Malfurion Stormrage, had escaped his underground prison and was fleeing to a set of islands to retrieve an item known as the Eye of Sargeras. He succeeded with the aid of the naga, night elves that were destroyed when the Well of Eternity exploded. Eventually, he went to Icecrown, the home of the Lich King in Northrend. He was defeated by the death knight Arthas, the same one that destroyed my people, who became the Lich King.

"A few months ago, the Dark Portal was opened to Outland, and Illadin's stronghold. My people have changed our name from high elves, to blood elves in honor of our fallen kinsmen," Lintheion finished.

Naruto and Sarutobi stared as Lintheion wiped away a few stray tears from the painful memories, and looked outside at the midday sun.

"Well enough sad memories, how about we go get something to eat?" Lintheion asked.

AN: I'm trying this story out and see how its reception is. I've been wanting a NarutoWoW crossover where Naruto was trained by someone from WoW, and I just happen to like the Horde better than the Alliance so it was the Horde. I explained the world's general history for those who were unfamiliar with the WoW world and because I was blanking on what else to write.

For the pairings:

Lin/Anko (that would be creepy)

Lin/Tsunade (he wouldn't have any problems with age or anything)

Lin/OC (this one would probably be the easiest to do)

Naruto/Hinata (I could see it happening)

Naruto/Sergra (the female orc at the Crossroads you finish the first quest with)

Naruto/OC (again, probably the easiest)


	2. Forces and Genins

AN: Yo! This here's Takaiteishu Naruto for another chapter of Mage Trained Kitsune. So far the pairings are as follows:

Lin/Anko: 0

Lin/Tsunade: 1

Lin/OC: 2

Naruto/Hinata: 1

Naruto/Sergra: 1

Naruto/OC: 3

Even if one wins, I may not do that pairing if I decide on something else. Though later on, I do plan on Sylvanas encouraging Lin to pursue a romantic interest. I also see as the translation from WoW levels to ninja ranks as follows:

1-10 Genin

11-20 Chuunin

21-30 Jounin

31-40 ANBU

41-50 Sannin

51-60 Kage

The level I plan on Naruto eventually reaching is not on this list, since the second expansion to WoW is in the works and the level cap will be raised to 80 instead of the 70 that it is. Lintheion is currently at level 70, so more than a match against Orochimaru or any members of Akatsuki, but not all of them at the same time. He could probably handle three or four by himself and more with allies.

Top of Form

Last Time:

_"A few months ago, the Dark Portal was opened to Outland, and Illadin's stronghold. My people have changed our name from high elves, to blood elves in honor of our fallen kinsmen," Lintheion finished._

_Naruto and Sarutobi stared as Lintheion wiped away a few stray tears from the painful memories, and looked outside at the midday sun._

_"Well enough sad memories, how about we go get something to eat?" Lintheion asked._

Now:

"Alright, how about ramen?" Naruto asked calmly.

"Don't think I've had it, but sure. I'm always up for trying new kinds of food," Lintheion answered.

Naruto let out a shout of joy before he was knocked over the head with the head of a staff.

"We need to work on that loudness of yours Naruto. Every time you shout like that from now on you will receive a punishment, each time increasing in severity. For this time, I will let it pass."

Naruto gulped slightly, wondering what his punishment would be, and mentally deciding to restrain his loudness. Sarutobi shook his head in amusement, before leading the pair to Ichiraku Ramen. Once there, Lintheion looked at the menu with a thinking look on his face as the other two made their orders. With a sigh, he reached into his pack and pulled out a wrapped package and motioned the owner's daughter over and asked with a wide smile, "Could you possibly add this kind of meat to my order please?"

"O-of course Ambassador-san," she replied before taking it to the back and having her father prepare the orders.

"What is it you gave her Lintheion-sensei?" Naruto asked.

"Kodo meat. You will actually see wild and domesticated kodos when we travel to Mulgore. Tauren who come to help the economy of Konoha may also ride kodo. Tauren use the domesticated kodo as mounts and hunt the wild kodo for meat, clothes, tents, and many other things. The orcs and trolls share the warrior city of Orgrimmar. The Forsaken have built an underground labyrinth beneath the ruins of Lordaeron's former capital city. It is there that an Orb of Translocation, which will teleport us to Silvermoon, my homeland. We will leave early tomorrow," Lintheion said as his and Sarutobi's single bowls arrived as well as Naruto's twenty.

Upon seeing the number of bowls Naruto had, Lintheion immediately said, "I am not paying for that much."

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The next day, Lintheion met his student at the North Gate on his large bird. He grabbed Naruto by his wrist in a clasp and swung him up in front of him on his bird before the two of them took off, not to be seen in Konoha for another year.

"Lintheion-sensei, what will I be learning first?" Naruto asked as he got used to the movements that the strange bird they were riding was making.

"First off we need to find what kind of magic you favor. Ninjas are unique in that they are the only ones in the world to use chakra. The rest of the world uses either a force called mana, rage built up through battle, or simple energy. Mages like me, as well as warlocks, priests, shamans, paladins, hunters, and druids use mana. Hunters and paladins barely use mana, hunters more so than paladins; for some of us like mages, warlocks, and priests, we would barely be able to survive in the world without it, me less so since I have also devoted a great deal of time in learning melee combat. Warriors use rage that they have built up in battle to execute combat moves that would be able to nearly wipe out all but the strongest opponents in just a few blows. Rouges use a unique form of energy that I do not even pretend to understand how they harness it.

"Now before you learn your first spell, there is one thing you must always keep in mind: the magic I will teach you is very addicting. The naga and my people as a race are addicted to magic. I am not proud of what my people have done in the past, calling the demons among them, but I have found that if you have a strong enough will, you can resist the temptation of magic.

"Some blood elves have become consumed by their addiction now that the power of the Sunwell can no longer feed our hunger, they are little more than animals now, driven only by the hunger of their addiction. Some of your first tests will be against them. I will teach you one spell from the two main branches of combat magic to begin with, and as you advance you will naturally tend to choose spells from one of the three branches. The branches of combat magic are: Frost, Arcane, and Fire. I personally favor a blend of Frost and Fire with a little bit of Arcane thrown in. The first Frost spell I will teach you is called Frost Armor. The first Fire is called Firebolt. I will hold off on Arcane spells until you get a bit more experience in using magic and not instinctively falling back onto chakra."

"Alright Lintheion-sensei."

After the two rode for a few hours, they stopped next to a stream and Lintheion pulled a collapsible fishing pole from his pack and easily caught a few fish. He then directed Naruto in how to pick good wood for a fire and how to cook caught fish.

As the two were eating their fish, Naruto paused and asked his mentor, "Sensei, how do you know so much about surviving in the wilds? I had noticed that you didn't follow the path once we were out of sight of the gate but you didn't seem even the least bit hesitant or lost."

Lintheion smiled at his student before ruffling the boy's hair and answering, "It comes from spending time in the wilds. You either learn, or die. For a while in the beginning of my career I tended to stick to the roads, but over time as I became more confident in my abilities and skill, I began to wander further and further from the road until I became more comfortable out in nature than on roads. I don't know nearly as much about survival in the wilds as say a hunter, but I know a lot more than the average mage or especially warlock."

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A year after Uzumaki Naruto had left with the Ambassador to the Horde, the people of Konoha were used to the Horde races by now and were also amazed by the abilities they displayed. Some younger members even took to learning their arts instead of that of the shinobi. At the North Gate at this time however, a pair of people in mage robes appeared, each riding a mount. One was on a bird known as a hawkstrider, the mount most commonly used by the Blood Elves, and the other was on a skeletal horse, the mount most commonly used by the undead Forsaken. The funny thing about the one on the undead horse however, was that he was obviously a human.

"Good to be back my apprentice?" The blood elf on his hawkstrider asked.

"Yup Master, it is good. Shall we see if the Hokage recognizes me?" the young man responded.

The blood elf smiled before the two entered the village and headed towards the Hokage tower. The blood elf had hair that spiked backwards that was red at the base before lightening to blonde as it went further back. The other person with him had blonde hair that seemed to follow no order in the way it was spiked, and his blue eyes seemed to have an almost icy glow to them.

As the two made their way through the village, they saw the multitude of Horde races mingling with the people of Konoha. It brought a smile upon both riders' faces to see the sight. The two glanced at each other and the one riding the undead horse said to his companion, "Good to see people getting along with others so unlike them isn't it Master Lintheion?"

"Yes it is my apprentice. I think it is time that we place you back into the ninja ranks. You may still learn under me every day after team building exercises if you wish," the blood elf rider responded.

"Personally, I would like that. The method you teach me aids in resisting the addiction of magic and I personally favor magic over chakra."

The two then dismounted as they had reached the Hokage Tower and entered the building. The apprentice once again smiled as the two entered the Hokage's office and Lintheion once again turned the Hokage's paperwork to ash.

Sarutobi froze in midstamp. There was only one person who ever burned his paperwork even when he didn't want it burned. His head snapped up to see two smirking figures in mage robes. One was a blood elf that had been Ambassador a year ago, and the other he didn't recognize. However, he vaguely noticed three faint lines on each cheek and the sun kissed blonde hair.

His eyes widened as he put two and two together, "Naruto?"

"Yup Ol' Man. I'm back!" the blonde mage said with a grin.

Sarutobi smiled before shaking his head. Only Naruto ever called him an Old Man. It was a good thing that the genin graduation exam had been held earlier in the week, and he was given a week to come up with team formations. He had been hoping that Naruto would show up in time.

"I assume that you wish to become a genin correct Naruto?" Sarutobi asked.

"Yes I do. However I would like to still learn from Master Lintheion after team building exercises," Naruto said, as the blue glow in his eyes seemed to intensify.

"Very well," Sarutobi said, slightly intimidated by the icy glow in Naruto's eyes, "You will report to Iruka's classroom on Friday to receive your genin team. Would you mind if I were to give you a test to see what skills you have?"

"Actually, yes I would. A good shinobi never shows his abilities beforehand correct?" Naruto asked with a large grin.

Sarutobi let out a loud laugh at Naruto's proclamation.

"Life is never dull with you around Naruto! Fair enough, I won't ask you for a display of your abilities. I must confess I am curious about how you received a mount, from what I've heard they aren't commonly sold to those below ANBU level. No offense, but I find it hard to believe that you are that strong already," Sarutobi stated after getting his chuckles under control.

"It helps that you are apprenticed to the older brother of the leader of the Forsaken. Sylvanas is actually pretty cool; she also gave me a necklace that was a gift to her from her sister Alleria when she was alive. I plundered it off the body of a wraith that inhabited her former home in the Ghostlands. She's sort of become like an aunt to me now."

"Well, enough reminiscing, there will be time for that later. I'm sure that your favorite ramen stand is missing you."

Naruto's eyes lit up as Lintheion groaned. Apparently, Lintheion had been forced to pay for all of Naruto's food bills, even though from what he heard from other mages that passed through it was common to be able to conjure food. Though knowing Naruto, you'd apparently need an endless supply of power in order to feed him (if the food was ramen that is).

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A few days later, Naruto was riding towards the Academy on his undead horse with a slight smile. He wondered what his team would consist of. He was mostly a ranged heavy damage dealer, but sucked at close combat to put it bluntly. So there needed to be at least one taijutsu user on his team, and possibly a healer or genjutsu user. That would round off the team, if they were to go by skills and not grades, in that he would be stuck with the two best students in the physical and mental areas. Oh well, he'd make do with what he could.

As he reached the edge of the Academy grounds, Naruto hopped off of his undead ride and returned him to his crystal. It wouldn't be good for his future comrades to be terrified of him before they had a chance to fight along side him.

With a smirk he walked into the Academy and waited outside Iruka's classroom until he heard, "An old classmate of yours has returned from a year long training trip and will be joining the shinobi ranks as a genin with the rest of you."

Once Iruka said that, Naruto opened the door and walked in before taking a seat in the nearest empty spot. Once the mutters died down (since no one recognized him) Iruka continued announcing the genin teams.

"Team One…Team Seven is Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata, and Uchiha Sasuke. Your Jounin sensei is Hatake Kakashi. Team Eight is Aburame Shino, Haruno Sakura, and Inzuka Kiba. Your Jounin sensei is Yuhi Kurenai. Team Nine is still in circulation. Team Ten is Akimichi Choji, Nara Shikamaru, and Yanamaka Ino. Your Jounin sensei is Sarutobi Asuma. Your senseis will pick you up after an hour for lunch."

Naruto glanced around and immediately spotted his male teammate and held back a chuckle. He still hadn't changed. No doubt he will demand for Naruto to teach him his own mage skills once Sauce-gay figured out that he couldn't steal them. He used the term steal instead of copy because that is exactly what the Uchiha bloodline did. It didn't copy jutsu; its user could instantly get a jutsu in a friendly spar from an opponent who worked their butt off to learn it. The Sharingan was nothing but a cheep copycat's tool.

Naruto shook himself from his negative thoughts; they would make it easier for him to become corrupted by the magic he used. He employed his thoughts to try to find his other teammate. His mouth dropped when he recognized her. She was far more confident and had on the clothes of a shaman. He didn't know that humans could become shamans, but how had she gotten the training? If he knew his Master, he was willing to bet that Lintheion had a hand in it.

"Naruto-kun?" Hinata's voice came from right next to him asked.

"Yes Hinata?" Naruto asked before smacking the back of his head and saying, "I apologize for the lack of an honorific, but I've been in lands where they don't use honorifics for so long that I've fallen into the habit of leaving them out."

"It is okay Naruto-kun, I came to ask you where you had been for the past year but if I'm right you were trained by the Ambassador that came a year ago correct?"

"You are correct, I was trained by the best mage the blood elves have, in addition to the best prankster ever to live in Quel'Thalas. If I am right, you were trained by another part of the Horde as well?"

Hinata smiled before saying, "Yes, a female orc shaman by the name of Droga came about a week or two after you left and started to train me in the ways of the spirits. I believe that I would be the group's healer."

"Make's sense, well, might as well get something to eat," Naruto said before opening his pouch and pulling out a few rather large spider legs before crunching into them rather loudly.

"I wasn't aware that you had a taste for spider," Hinata said with a sweat drop.

"I picked it up in the Ghostlands after doing some spider killing, turns out that Ghostland spider legs when fixed correctly is fantastic. Want some? If not I've got some boar or wolf."

"I think I'll try the boar."

Naruto nodded before reaching into his pack and pulling out a crystal similar to the one that contained his mount and with a cloud of smoke there were a set of ribs that were smoking slightly and letting off a delicious aroma. The smell attracted their last teammate for it smelled far better than anything he could cook.

"Oh hey Sasuke, I assume that you are after some of _my_ cooking? The blood elves in Lordaeron certainly know how to show a guy to do some pretty neat stuff. I've got some wolf meat here as well," Naruto said before taking another crystal out and creating a plate of steaming steaks and handing it to Sasuke.

Naruto then made a few hand seals that neither of the two had ever seen before and three vials of water appeared in front of them. Naruto immediately picked one up and started to drink, before noticing the stares of his teammates.

"One of the skills I picked up was creating food and drink out of thin air, though I am really good at creating water, the food I create is crap. I have spent so much time cooking foods and storing them in subspace though, we should be good for quite a few missions to come. I also have nearly everything of mine stored in subspace now," Naruto stated calmly.

"What is subspace?" Sasuke asked with a confused look.

"It is where items go when they are sealed or stored in crystals. Subspace keeps things in suspended animation so whatever is put in comes out exactly the same. Quite useful for keeping track of prisoners or proof of an assassination."

Both of Naruto's teammates paled at how calmly he was talking about assassinations. What had he been through?

Few hours later, Naruto finally had enough.

"That does it! Time for some payback!" he shouted.

His teammates raised eyebrows as Naruto took a chalkboard eraser from the board in the front of the classroom and wedged it at the top of the door so it would fall if the door was opened. He then muttered under his breath and a streak of blue shot from his hand into the eraser. The eraser glowed blue briefly before fading back to normal.

"Our master will have a, chilling surprise should he let that eraser hit him," Naruto said with a smirk.

About five minutes later, the door opened and a sliver haired head with a mask covering the lower half of his face and the headband covering the left eye poked into the classroom, and had an enchanted eraser land directly on top of his head. To everyone else, it looked like the person had simply frozen on spot (except for the heavy shivering), while to the one who had the eraser dropped on him, it felt like his insides were frozen solid.

"That's what you get for showing up three hours late shitface. I was trained by one of the greatest mages in the Horde," Naruto said with a smirk.

"M-m-eet m-me o-on th-the r-roof in five minutes," the newcomer said, stuttering less as he warmed up.

Naruto smirked again before walking out of the room and up to the roof, flanked by his teammates. Once the group of three arrived at the agreed upon designation, they sat in a semicircle around their supposed instructor.

"Alright, let's have introductions, shall we? You go first blondie," their sensei said calmly, though his face was still slightly blue.

"Alrighty then. My name is Uzumaki-Windrunner Naruto. I like ramen, cooked spider legs, Sylvanas, and training. I dislike the Alliance, the bastard Lich King Arthas, queers, and basically anyone who pisses me off. My dream…kill Arthas and become the greatest mage in the world," Naruto calmly said.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at that. The Kyuubi container seemed to be much different than he was a year ago. Heno longer shouted that he was going to be Hokage anymore.

"Broody."

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I have no likes and more dislikes. My ambition is to kill a certain man."

"White eye."

"My name is Hyuuga Hinata. I like my sensei Droga, the elemental spirits, flower pressing, and my little sister Hanabi. I dislike people who disrespect nature, arrogant bastards, and those who judge people without knowing them. My dream is to rebuild the Hyuuga clan."

"Alright, you all are unique. Why don't we meet on Training Field 70 tomorrow at 8:00 for the real genin test? Don't eat breakfast, you'll just throw it up."

With that, team seven's sensei disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Naruto snorted before standing up and nodding to both teammates before heading to his old apartment.

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The next morning at eight, Naruto was waiting at Training Field 70 while browsing through a thick tome. Glancing up and nodding as the other two members of his team showed up, Naruto pulled out two muffins and tossed one to each of his teammates.

"Did you forget that we were told not to eat breakfast?" Sasuke asked as Hinata bit into her muffin.

"Do you really expect to do any good against a jounin while starving?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke nodded slightly while taking a bit out of his own muffin. The team then waited…and waited…and waited…and waited some more.

Three hours later, Kakashi arrived and immediately had to dodge bolts of ice, lighting, and fire. His genin were pissed and nothing would stop them from getting payback.

Naruto charged up a Frostbolt spell in his cupped palms as Sasuke flashed through some hand seals and fired multiple small fireballs at Kakashi while Hinata summoned a totem that slowed Kakashi down.

Kakashi started to sweat, either they were faster than he anticipated, or he was somehow moving slower. His teeth started to chatter when the Frostbolt spell that Naruto launched hit him in the side. His eyes widened when his reflexes slowed even further than they already had. Seeing no other option, he lifted his headband to reveal his single Sharingan eye.

The sight that greeted his eye was unlike anything he had ever seen. The Sharingan worked by locating the chakra in a person's body and seeing how it flowed. Every known technique required chakra in some level, be it ninjutsu, genjutsu, even taijutsu. Ninjutsu and genjutsu used chakra to power them; taijutsu used chakra to make the body faster and stronger (consciously or not). By seeing how the chakra in a person's body moved, they could predict a person's actions and copy them. The chakra of a person's body reacted to said person's thoughts, and the Sharingan analyzed it and then copied whatever technique the person was preparing to use.

That was all well and good, except only one of his students was using chakra! Sasuke was using techniques that he had already seen and copied, but Naruto's and Hinata's chakra was simply conveying their movements, and nothing about the techniques they were using!

Naruto smirked as he prepped one of the newer spells he had mastered. It was a favorite of the mages of Dalaran and the Alliance when the Scourge first gained a foothold in Lordaeron. It worked by covering a target in mana, then the mana would sink into the target's body. Once there, it would alter the body it was in into a harmless form. Despite the fact that so much happens, the spell is nearly instantaneous. The default form for the spell was a sheep, but if a mage were skilled enough, they could theoretically transform a target into any form. Naruto still preferred the sheep form for the Polymorph spell.

To everyone's (except Naruto) shock, Kakashi was suddenly in midair, covered in white wool, and had four legs. Sheep-Kakashi let out a baa and kicked his feet before falling on the ground. The three genin towered over the polymorphed Kakashi with a sadistic gleam in their eyes.

(Thirty minutes later)

Naruto laughed as Sheep-Kakashi barely dodged a fireball yet again. The three had stuffed their polymorphed sensei into a sack and taken him into the forest where they wouldn't be disturbed and performed various forms of torture on him. Naruto had tied his feet onto a spit and slowly turned him over a bonfire that Sasuke was kind enough to provide.

Hinata seemed to have developed a sadistic side while training under Droga. She set Kakashi loose and zapped him with lightning bolts only to heal him then repeat. Oh, and she also bashed him with a large hammer that at least one woman in every manga seemed to have. And she enchanted it with a spell called Flametounge Weapon. Rather self-explanatory.

Sasuke was currently hurling fireballs in addition to kunai and other sharp pointy objects. Naruto chacked his watch and frowned when he saw that the spell would end in three…two…one.

There was a cloud of smoke that cleared to reveal a pissed off Kakashi while holding several of the kunai and shuriken that Sasuke had been throwing. While taking some deep breaths he said, "Normally I would have given you a test with two bells and told you that whoever got a bell passed. The point of that test wouldn't be getting a bell, but teamwork. The three of you already showed teamwork. So, despite what you did to me while I was under whatever jutsu that was, you all pass. Meet me at the same training grounds tomorrow for your first mission."


	3. A Wave of Death Approaches

Summary: A stranger arrives at Konoha

AN: Here is the next chapter of Mage Trained Kitsune. Even though there were no questions about it, the reason that I made Kage level only up to the equivalent of level sixty instead of seventy is because before the Burning Crusade expansion the level cap was sixty. With the Burning Crusade expansion it became possible to travel to Outland where there were creatures and demons stronger than nearly anything else on Azeroth. Since nothing on Azeroth could match against the stronger creatures in outland, there was no need to be stronger than level 60. Lin has been to Outland and chose to return to Azeroth. He only later became an ambassador for the Horde. So since the Kages never encountered anything above other shinobi of their relative skill level they never reached level seventy. The closest I would say would be either Itachi or Pien.

"Billy" speech

'_Joe'_ thoughts

"_**Bob"**_ pissed off emphasis

Top of Form

Last Time:

_There was a cloud of smoke that cleared to reveal a pissed off Kakashi while holding several of the kunai and shuriken that Sasuke had been throwing. While taking some deep breaths he said, "Normally I would have given you a test with two bells and told you that whoever got a bell passed. The point of that test wouldn't be getting a bell, but teamwork. The three of you already showed teamwork. So, despite what you did to me while I was under whatever jutsu that was, you all pass. Meet me at the same training grounds tomorrow for your first mission."_

Now:

"I AM GOING TO _KILL_ THAT CAT!!"

Said cat started to run as blasts of fire and ice started blasting where it was a moment before. It yelped as a shard of ice pierced its thigh, causing it to crash into a tree trunk and knock itself out.

"Then again, that works too," the voice that was just before screaming death threats towards the feline creature said as he walked out of the underbrush. Said voice belonged to a tall, twelve year old boy with blonde hair and icy blue eyes in dark blue flowing robes with arcane symbols on them with a staff in his left hand. The staff was made of a wood not native to the Konoha area that twisted about a foot from the top up to form three claws (for lack of a better term) that held a dark onyx stone in place.

"Are you sure, we could still kill it and say that we found it too late to save it, but did kill the beast that did," the blonde's teammate asked as she walked up in chainmail and had a shield on her back and an ax on her hip. Unlike her teammate, she had dark hair and the lavender pupil-less eyes of the Hyuuga clan.

"I agree," the last teammate said as he walked out. This one had black eyes and hair that looked like a duck was sitting on his head as well as kaki shorts and a blue tee shirt that had the fan symbol of the near extinct Uchiha clan.

"Ah team, good job on finding the target!" the final member of Team Seven declared, causing all other members to abandon their murderous thoughts for the time being.

A few minutes later, the cat was returned to the Daimyo's wife who was currently in the process of suffocating said cat.

_'Serves it right!'_ all three genin of Team Seven thought. Obviously they were not overly fond of the feline.

With Team Seven at Mission reception a few minutes later, the Hokage took out a set of folders all labeled "D-Rank" only for the folders to be turned to ashes. Sarutobi glanced up to see a pissed off Naruto breathing hard, flames surrounding him, and a massive tick in his forehead.

_**"No. More. F#ing. D. Rank. MISSIONS!"**_ Naruto shouted, as his mana reacted to his anger and the windows behind the Hokage blew out while Sarutobi was hiding under the proverbial bed on the inside of his mind.

"Give us at the very least a C-Rank. I can do to you what we did to Kakashi during the bell test," Naruto threatened with a sadistic gleam in his eye.

WHAM! CRUNCH!

Everyone turned to see a female orc in leather and hide armor with a large battle ax strapped to her back walk over the splinters of the former door. Sarutobi barely restrained a whimper. That orcess was even crazier that Anko! However he wasn't terrified enough not to notice that Naruto smiled upon seeing her.

"OI! NAR THOS! GIVE ME SOMETHING TO DO!" the female orc shouted while Naruto was visibly restraining his laughter.

"What's so funny Naruto?" Kakashi asked completely ignoring the orcess beside him.

Naruto couldn't help it anymore. As he fell to the floor laughing, he gasped out, "Nar thos…means…NO SACK!"

All the other humans in the room blinked before the phrase translated itself in their heads. Hinata started to giggle, Sasuke smirked, the orcess looked rather amused, and Kakashi…turned the next page of his book.

"Now Sergra, I," Sarutobi started.

"Just shut up and give me a mission, Nether (1), I'll even take a C-Rank if it's with the blonde zanbaur (2) here," the orcess identified as Sergra said while Naruto let out an indigent shout.

"Well, there is one C-Rank available. Alright, it is an escort mission."

"Good, now hurry up and tell us who we'll be escorting."

"Tazuna-san is to be protected until the bridge he is building is completed. You may come in now."

A door other than the one Sergra smashed opened as an old man that reeked of alcohol and with a half-empty sake bottle in his hand stumbled in while saying, "These are the runts supposed to be protecting me? They look like they'd wet themselves at the first sign of a bird. Especially the one in a bath robe."

Everyone in the room winced as the temperature dropped while Sergra smacked her forehead as she pulled her ax off her back, just in case. Naruto's head slowly turned towards their client as one of his hands started to glow a light blue. In a spin like pitching a baseball, Naruto hurled a bolt of ice at the man's sake bottle, completely freezing it. Tazuna dropped the bottle in surprise, and when the bottle hit the ground it completely shattered.

"Never insult him if you want to live a long life human," Sergra said as she and a calming down Naruto left to pack.

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"So how long have you been in Konoha?" Naruto asked as he and Sergra left the mission reception office.

"Oh, about a month before you got back I was reassigned from the Crossroads. It took a little bit to readjust from seeing nothing but desert to nothing but forest, but I adjusted. I've been told that Draenor once looked a lot like this. I wish I could have seen it," Sergra responded.

"I know, I have not been to Outland myself, but Master Lintheion has told me that it looks nothing like it is said to have once looked like. Have you heard anything form Orgrimmar lately?"

"A few weeks ago there were reports of some humans in black cloaks with red clouds being spotted by a few of Lord Thrall's agents. But that's the most interesting things lately."

"I'm going to have to go to Orgrimmar sometime in the near future; I haven't been there since the second month of my training."

"What? You left the Barrens six months into your trip."

"We were in a hurry to get to Tirisfal Glades so we didn't stop on the way to the goblin zeppelin. I will never trust those little buggers."

"Good, it shows that you're smart. Don't trust them to be anything other than their greedy little selves; that and nearly anything they make will eventually blow up."

"You're right there. Well, I'll catch you at the gate," Naruto said before running off to his apartment.

Five minutes later Naruto whistled while packing (Translation: sealing everything he owned into crystals and putting them into various sacks) before swinging his backpack onto his…well, back and heading towards the North Gate where he saw Sergra with a whetstone sharpening her ax.

Sergra smiled as she saw Naruto approaching the gate. The little brat had grown on her as she interacted with him in the Barrens. When they first met, she thought that he would be a stuck up snob like most humans. Then he opened his mouth. After that she still had a dislike for him because he was a human and always spouting off about being Hokage. After a few months though, he matured and grew into a person she could admire. They had become friends, and though she had never told anyone, she had begun to _like_ the little brat. She didn't realize it until after he had left though, which is one of the reasons she volunteered to be transferred to Konoha.

Sergra shook herself out of her thoughts as the rest of the group arrived and they set out towards Wave Country. She would need to always have her guard up when there were so few allies around. There had been rumors about the Alliance allying with enemies of Konoha. Even though this was only a C-Rank, it was entirely possible for members of the Alliance to attempt to disrupt relations between Konoha and the Horde by wiping out the only shinobi team that had any sort of abilities that the Horde taught.

But she couldn't think about that now. For now, she needed to keep her eyes and mind on her mission. With perfect timing as she noticed a pair of water puddles and crinkled her nose up when she smelled a human who hadn't bathed in weeks inside the puddle. She glanced up, not a cloud in the sky and it had been dry for more than a week.

A quick glance at Naruto showed that he had noticed and was making the seals for his polymorph spell. With his eyes he quickly glanced towards one of the puddles, indicating that he wanted that one. With a slight nod, she took her ax off her back and slammed it into the other puddle, which by now was right in front of her.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Tazuna shouted since he was just in front of the puddle and thought that she was trying to kill him. Before the illusion failed and Sergra had to get her ax out of a Mist nin's skull, having cut nearly clean through.

There was a cloud of smoke as a second puddle turned into a sheep who let out a baa of surprise before a sack was thrown over it and Team Seven wondered off into the forest.

Sergra blinked when she saw Kakashi shiver, "Why'd you shiver Dofna-ar (3)?" she asked.

"Let's just say that I know how that mist nin is going to feel," was all Kakashi said before the maniacal laughter of three teenagers torturing a poor defenseless animal started. Lucky Team Seven bums.

The three returned about half an hour later and Hinata glared at Tazuna before shooting bolts of lightning at his feet, making him do a funny dance.

"Those two were after you pa-gog hom (4). You are building a bridge that will strip control of Wave country from Gatoh, so he hired missing nin to kill you. Unfortunately," Naruto paused for a moment before continuing, "There are members of the Scourge working with them as well."

Sergra's eyes widened before they narrowed and she growled. So the rumors were true. The Scourge was here? Her face grew into a large grin as she thought, _'This mission is getting more interesting by the minute.'_

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A few days later, Team Seven plus two others were on a boat going into Wave itself. Sergra let out a low whistle upon seeing the size of the bridge as it came into view. Say what you will about Tazuna, he was definitely a damned good builder. Naruto had an impressed look on his face while staring at the humongous bridge.

Once they landed, Sergra unhooked her ax and started smelling the air. Her eyes glanced around; there were too many hiding places. The Alliance members could be anywhere, especially if they were rouges. Her ears perked up when she heard a whistling through the air before her eyes widened and she hit the deck at the same time as the rest of Team Seven and Tazuna. After she felt a large sword pass over her, she glanced up in time to see a freakishly large sword land into a tree and a man (shinobi by the looks of his headband and sandals) landed on it before lazily turning around to face the group.

"So these are the shinobi that allied with the Horde," a voice said as a male human in black robes walked out of the foliage.

"Sharingan Kakashi, no wonder the Demon Brothers failed," the first man said.

"And the orcess Sergra, I must say that I am honored to face such a famous warrior. I am Mandrild Hathborne," the obvious necromancer said before drawing symbols on the ground and a skeleton pulled itself from the ground.

Sergra growled before saying, "Leave the Scourge-scum to me, I'll handle him."

The necromancer smirked as Sergra charged at him and swung with her two-handed ax. His skeleton ran between them and blocked with a sword as Zabuza and Kakashi started to play a lethal version of tag with water clones.

Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke took formation around Tazuna while the other members of the group from Konoha fought. Hinata called up several totems and enchanted her ax with the Flametounge Weapon spell; Sasuke took out a kunai and slipped into a stance where he could easily block and throw, while Naruto layer himself in magical defenses. As he cast the spell Arcane Intellect upon himself, Naruto's eyes widened.

"Sergra, take the necromancer alive!" Naruto shouted as a realization came to him.

"Got it brat!" Sergra shouted back.

"Looks like Kakashi-sensei could use some help," Sasuke said as the other two members of Team Seven turned to look.

Naruto smacked his forehead as he saw Kakashi trapped in a sphere of water by Zabuza. Quickly analyzing the technique, Naruto concluded that Zabuza could not move since he hadn't already. He glanced at his teammates before realizing something. Hinata was a shaman-in-training. Shamans worked with the elements so maybe…

"Hey Hinata, can you communicate with the water that Zabuza is using and ask it to free Master Kakashi?" Naruto asked his female teammate as said teammates eyes lit up.

"I'll try; this may take a few minutes. Keep any water clones off me while I'm doing this," Hinata instructed before sitting down cross-legged.

Naruto glanced at Sasuke before whispering, "Do you think you can keep the clones away from me? I'm not good at close combat."

"I think so, just be ready to have a back up plan incase some get through," Sasuke replied.

Naruto nodded before pitching a Frostbolt at one water clone. The reaction surprised everyone watching. Naruto didn't know very many spells as a whole, and most of those were frost spells, but apparently water clones and frost spells do not mix well. When Naruto's Frostbolt spell hit the clone made of water, the clone completely froze before shattering. As all watching paused (even Sergra and the necromancer) Naruto got a sadistic, evil grin on his face while Zabuza started to sweat.

Naruto quickly started to fling frost spells at Zabuza's clones and the original. Upon noticing that Zabuza was able to block all of his spells with his sword that was bigger than any weapon has a right to be, Naruto growled and started to charge up his most powerful spell while mentally deciding that Hinata could heal Kakashi later.

"Oi Kakashi, don't take this the wrong way. I hope you don't mind being used to help train Hinata in healing, because I can't fully control this spell yet! BLIZZARD!" Naruto shouted as he released the built up magical power.

As nothing happened, Zabuza smirked before saying, "Looks like that jutsu of yours didn't work gaki."

Naruto just simply pointed up. Confused, Zabuza looked above him to see numerous shards of ice plummeting towards him before looking back at Naruto and saying with a glare, "I hate you."

Zabuza then leapt away from the frozen rain of death in effect releasing Kakashi who dove underwater to hide from Naruto's barely controlled spell.

Naruto meanwhile, was sweating as he struggled to keep the magical power under control. Upon realizing that if the spell didn't end soon he would loose control, Naruto started to tear the spell apart from the inside. To everyone else it simply appeared that the spell wore off while Naruto collapsed onto one knee while panting. Naruto reached into a pocket and pulled out two vials filled with blue liquid and quickly chugged both down.

By the time that the potions did their work Kakashi had Zabuza pinned to a tree while Sergra was toting the Necromancer over one shoulder. Just as Kakashi was about to finish Zabuza, two thin needles pierced Zabuza's neck. After checking for a pulse, Kakashi confirmed that the "Demon of the Mist" was dead.

While the older members of the Konoha group were discussing things with Zabuza's killer, the younger members grouped together around Tazuna and began discussing various things.

"Hey Sasuke, when after I left did you lose the foot long kunai up your ass?" Naruto asked.

"Shortly after the Horde started coming to Konoha, I encountered one of the Forsaken. At first I treated him like a piece of dirt but he beat humility into me. I decided to keep my brooding mask up in public to gain an edge against my fangirls," Sasuke replied as all members of Team 7 plus Tazuna shivered.

"Well, let's find out what the scoop is with Kakashi-sensei and Sergra-san," Hinata muttered as said people walked towards the genin and client.

"Well zanbaur, why did you want me to take the necromancer alive?" Sergra asked as she walked up.

"Think about it, when was the last time that the Scourge had necromancers in a place totally unprepared?" Naruto calmly asked her.

Sergra thought for only a moment before she completely paled.

"What? What happened the last time?" Sasuke asked, clearly confused.

"The last time the Scourge came to a place where they had no foothold was when they released _the_ Plague," Naruto responded.

"_The_ plague?" Tazuna asked. If it had to do with necromancers it probably wasn't anything good.

"Yes the Plague. The Plague is what infected grain and turned all who ate it into mindless undead servants of the Lich King. After the prince of Lordaeron went to Northrend, the roof of the world to get vengeance on the dreadlord in charge of the Scourge at the time, his soul was stolen by the runeblade Frostmourne. He eventually fused with the Lich King Ner'zhul and the combined being became the new Lich King. All because of a plague of undeath the land of Lordaeron is nothing more than wasteland covered by undead."

All that were not familiar with the recent history of Lordaeron paled dramatically before turning towards the necromancer. If the plague was spread by grain…

"We need to get to town now!" Tazuna shouted before running off in that direction.

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AN: That's it for this chapter. I know it's a little short but I felt that this was a good stopping point. I'm currently leaning towards Naruto/Sergra for the Naruto pairing and am kind of thinking about Lintheion/Tsunade, though both pairings won't fully occur until after the training trip.

1 – in reference to the Twisting Nether, the home of the Burning Legion and nearly all demons

2 – an orcish insult, basically the same as bastard but can be used playfully as well

3 – basically translates to the same thing as "nar thos"

4 – a rough translation of dumbass


	4. The Wave of Death Receeds

AN: Well here comes another chapter (earlier than I expected, I love no school holidays), and one I think will be resulting in a quite different Wave Arc conclusion (considering that I have only read one fic with an aspect that I am using in it so if you recognize _anything_ I don't own it).

Last Time:

_All that were not familiar with the recent history of Lordaeron paled dramatically_ _before turning towards the necromancer. If the plague was spread by grain…_

"_We need to get to town now!" Tazuna shouted before running off in that_ _direction._

Now:

"Wait Tazuna!" Naruto shouted.

"What? We need to get to town before too many people eat infected grain!"

"I know, there is a much quicker way," Naruto snapped before taking a purple crystal out of his pouch and slamming it on the ground.

There was a cloud of dramatic purple smoke to reveal a skeletal horse standing where the crystal landed. Sergra pulled a black crystal out and slammed it down to create a massive wolf. Naruto hopped onto the horse before yanking Tazuna into the spot behind him and taking off with the older passenger giving directions. Sergra turned to the others still present before pulling Hinata onto the spot in front of her.

"Try to keep up!" Sergra growled before taking off after Naruto and Tazuna.

"I guess we'd better follow them," Kakashi said before swinging Sasuke onto his back and pumping chakra into his legs and sprinting after the four mounted members.

Meanwhile, up at the front, Tazuna was having a hard time keeping up with the scenery enough to give Naruto proper directions. Even so, they still made it to town just in time to see the latest grain shipment arrive. Tazuna hopped off Naruto's mount and ran towards the stand, but even he could see that he wouldn't get there fast enough before someone left with some.

That is, until a ball of fire flew past him and hit the grain shipment dead-on. People jumped back as the grain easily caught fire and turned into a blaze. Naruto dismounted and started casting frost spells to create a perimeter before casting frost spells into the blaze itself.

Naruto panted as the blaze died down to reveal that only a few stalks of grain were left. With a sideways glance, Naruto walked over to the stalks and picked one up before examining it.

"Yup, this grain was infected alright," Naruto calmly stated before standing back up.

"If anyone took some of the grain from here; whatever you do, DO NOT EAT IT! It was poisoned with a very deadly disease!" Tazuna shouted as Sergra and Kakashi arrived with Hinata and Sasuke respectively.

"We need to destroy all of the grain that was a part of this shipment," Sergra said as she walked up to Naruto.

"We won't be able to. Most of any products go straight to Gatoh in his hideout and no one knows where that is," Tazuna interrupted.

"Scourge spit!" Naruto muttered before noticing everyone's eyes on him from that comment.

"Forsaken curse," Naruto explained.

"Well, by the week's end Wave will be short several of those living," Sergra said ominously.

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Sergra, Team Seven, and Tazuna then returned to Tazuna's home outside of town with a somber mood. Everyone was depressed that some of the infected grain managed to escape notice. Naruto sighed before turning to Tazuna and saying, "You do realize that if we cannot isolate the grain, we will have to destroy all of Wave don't you?"

Tazuna let out a tired sigh, appearing to be the old man he was, before answering, "Yeah, though that doesn't mean that I have to like it though. In a way, I'm kind of glad that I went to Konoha even though it may cost me everything that I have ever cared about."

"How so?"

"If I didn't then that necromancer would still be running around and who knows how many people that grain we intercepted would have infected."

Every one nodded at that logic before walking into Tazuna's home. Once they walked in, a fairly young woman in an apron walked up to greet them while brushing a powder off her hands. Naruto's eyes narrowed and he quickly demanded, "What was that powder you just brushed off your hands?"

The young woman was shocked for a moment before responding, "Err…just some grain, why?"

Naruto dashed into the kitchen and examined the grain she had been crushing with a mortar and pedestal. Muttering a charm under his breath, Naruto let out a sigh before returning to his team and saying, "The grain's safe. Sorry if we frightened you, but in town we found some infected grain. The plague that the grain was infected with had a large factor in wiping out an entire continent."

"It's alright Tsunami, we already destroyed the grain in town," Tazuna said as the woman started to panic.

"But doesn't Gatoh get all of the grain first? In that case we may not have anything to worry about," Tsunami said with a smile starting to form.

"If his forces have all eaten infected grain then we have a lot to worry about. That grain doesn't just kill those who eat it, it turns them into undead controlled by the Lich King Arthas Menethil," Naruto explained.

"Oi, don't you think we should inform Konoha about the Scourge's presence here?" Sergra asked while the necromancer was still on her shoulder.

"Good point," Kakashi said before summoning a nindog.

Sergra jotted down a note explaining the situation before tossing it to the dog. The dog barked before taking off for Konoha.

"My estimate is that Zabuza won't be able to fight for a week, we'll use that time to train," Kakashi said calmly.

"No offense sensei, but I would like to use this week to try to find the Spirit of Water. I already have connected with the Spirit of Earth and the Spirit of Fire and can create totems from those two spirits. If I can appease the Spirit of Water I'll be able to create water totems," Hinata spoke up.

"And I should probably use this week to gain more control over some of my spells, like my Blizzard spell," Naruto said, smirking when Kakashi shivered in remembrance.

"Guess that leaves you with the Uchiha. I'll spend most of the week guarding Tazuna," Sergra offered before going out back to interrogate the necromancer, followed by the rest of Team Seven.

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Two days later, there was a knock on Tazuna's door during breakfast to which Tsunami answered.

"Can I help you sir?" everyone heard her ask.

_"We're reinforcements,"_ a raspy voice said, causing Naruto to grin and run out.

"Irertne!" Naruto called out in joy.

"Hey calf, see you've grown since I last saw you," a deeper voice said as Naruto ran out the door.

"Windhorn," Sergra said with a smile as she also walked out.

"Sergra, it been a long time lass. Any chance o' me getting' luck," a thickly accented voice started to ask before the sounds of smacking sounds were heard.

"Volkin," Hinata muttered while shaking her head with an amused smile.

"Alright calm down, we were all that could be sent but even if what you said is true we should be enough," a third voice that both Hinata and Sasuke vaguely recognized.

"Master Lin!" those inside heard Naruto cry out in joy.

There was bonking sounds when they heard the latest voice shout, "AND WHAT'S THIS I HEAR ABOUT YOU USING A SPELL YOU HAVE NOT MASTERED YET? DIDN'T I TEACH YOU BETTER THAN THAT? BY THE END OF THIS WEEK YOU WILL DEFINITELY HAVE THAT SPELL MASTERED OR ELSE!"

"Why do I get the feeling that we'll be hard pressed for food?" Tazuna rhetorically asked.

"Don't worry, both Naruto and his master can conjure food and water, plus Naruto's got plenty of exotic foods sealed away. We'll be fine," Hinata said with a smile.

Once all of the reinforcements were inside and sitting around the table, Naruto unsealed several racks of boar ribs, large drumsticks from various breeds of striders (large flightless birds), and a set of spider legs (which greatly disturbed Tazuna, Tsunami, and Inari, Tazuna's grandson). Lintheion then conjured multiple vials of water and unsealed a case of ale for Tazuna and others that actually _had_ an alcohol tolerance. Even a single sip of highly distilled sake caused Lintheion to pass out, much to the amusement of his companions.

Five minutes after the Horde members arrived, Inari slammed his hands down on the table and shouted, "Why do you try so hard? You can't stand up against Gatoh, anyone who does just ends up dead!"

Upon hearing this, Volkin couldn't help but fall out of his chair, laughing so hard he could barely breathe. Irertne just chuckled under the cloak that kept their hosts from seeing that he was undead while Windhorn and Lintheion just raised eyebrows.

"Kid…we…fought…against…demons dat would…make anyting ya can _dream_ o' look like worms. Da only way a 'uman coul' stan' 'gainst us woul' be if 'e done dat same tings," Volkin said, laughing uncontrollably at each pause.

_"As much as I hate to agree with the troll, he is right. There is no way some fat business man would stand against us, even if he does get infected by the Plague…just like my family was,"_ Irertne remarked.

"You think you know everything? You don't live here; you're not even from the Elemental Countries. You don't know what it's like to suffer!" Inari shouted, causing Naruto to noticeably wince as he glanced at his master.

Lintheion for his part was only letting his anger show by the fact that his glass was shaking in his hand. That is until the glass shattered and he turned his glowing green gaze towards the child, who just realized he had a big mistake.

"_I_ don't know what it's like to _suffer_? Do _you_ know about what happened to my people? DO YOU?!" Lintheion shouted while magic flared around him.

Inari shook his head fearfully before Lintheion continued, "Five years ago a madman at the head of an undead army invaded my homeland. My sister Sylvanus Windrunner, Ranger-General of Silvermoon continually tried to hold back the bastard at the head of the army, former prince of Lordaeron, Arthas Menethil. She eventually failed and I had to watch from afar as he rammed his sword into her. I saw as he dangled her from his sword before letting her slide off. I then had to watch as he didn't even grant her peace in death. The bastard turned her into a banshee. I then had to watch as undead broke into my home. Do you know what happened then?"

"N-no," Inari whispered.

"I had to watch as they took my wife and son and ate them, _ALIVE_! Don't you _dare_ tell me I don't know about suffering little brat. You still have a family that loves you enough to risk everything for you. Your grandfather is risking his life to help this country out. And you don't even acknowledge that, you just wallow in your misery and the past. If I did that then I would have died long ago, I don't know who you lost, but I can guarantee you it is nothing like seeing your people driven to near extinction. There are barely five hundred blood elves left in _existence_. And the one who is supposed to lead us is being driven mad by the thirst that plagues all of my people."

"What do you mean?" Tazuna asked.

"Shinobi are the only ones in the world that use chakra, some of the world uses a force called arcane magic. That kind of magic is highly addicting, and my people as a race are addicted to magic. For several thousand years we fed off the mystical energies of the Sunwell, but when that was destroyed we had to turn to new sources of power, we had to drain it from other things. I've only ever drained magic from creatures composed of pure magic called manawraiths and items suffused with magic in them, others aren't so picky."

"Some blood elves have taken to summoning demons and then draining the magic from them. Others have taken to hunting mages and other spell casters to obtain magic to feed their hunger. Yet others have become so crazed by their hunger that they are ruled by it, little more than animals that feed on magic," Sergra said before tearing a bite of meat off a drumstick.

"There is always someone who has suffered more than you, try to remember that little calf," Windhorn said while gently placing a hand of Inari's shoulder.

_"Look at me, my entire country was wiped out by the same plague that Gatoh now has in the grain he has stored away. Take a good look at what it does,"_ Irertne said before reaching up and throwing back his hood, revealing his half rotted away face.

Tsunami screamed and Tazuna fell backwards in his chair while Inari adopted a horrified look.

"Calm down, there's an entire nation of undead who have freed themselves from the Lich King's mental control. My pseudo-aunt is one of them," Naruto said calmly while taking Sylvanus' necklace out and looking at it.

Irertne looked at the necklace and jerked back in surprise_, "I didn't know the Dark Lady gave you that, one would think it was cursed considering that all that have had it have died."_

Naruto gave the undead a look before saying, "There have only been two other than me so far. I hardly think that would constitute as a curse. One went into Outland to keep the demon controlled orcs at bay and fell into the Twisting Nether while the other was killed by the Lich King at Silvermoon. Beside you can't really say that Sylvanus Windrunner's dead considering that she's currently the Banshee Queen of the Forsaken."

Conversation pretty much died after that, dinner being filled with a slightly awkward silence.

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The next day Lintheion dragged Naruto out into the forest to train in controlling the Blizzard spell while Volkin and Hinata went searching for the Spirit of Water and Kakashi took Sasuke for chakra control training. Windhorn, Sergra, and Irertne took to guarding Tazuna and keeping an eye out for signs of infected people. When Tazuna realized that there were some who had broken away from the Scourge's control, he became ecstatic…up until he learned that the Scourge outnumbered the Forsaken nearly a hundred to one. And that several didn't regain their minds until years after they were infected.

Irertne could tell that Tazuna was taking the fact that Wave may have to be purged hard. It was understandable; Irertne had been one of the few that Mal'Ganus had taken when Arthas purged Stratholme. Most of his kin hadn't been so lucky. While he missed them, he realized that they were better off dead than possibly under Arthas' control like his wife and son were.

Meanwhile Hinata and Volkin were having an interesting conversation:

"So what you're saying is that chances are this Spirit will be different than the ones that you swore loyalty to?" Hinata asked as she activated her Byakugan, searching for possible clearings or caves that the Spirit could be in.

"It would make sense, dese spirits 'ave been 'round people who used 'chakra' radda dan mana. Add to da fact dat ya be da first shaman dat has sworn loyalty to dese spirits eva. Ma guess is dat ya will be havin' a hard time convincing dis one dat ya mean well, due to dat pig Gatoh," Volkin responded while also searching for the spirit.

All of a sudden, Volkin smacked his forehead and mumbled, "O course, why didn' I tink o' dis sooner?"

Volkin then walked towards the beach and sat down cross-legged and said in a language that Hinata didn't recognize, **"Halkonanda, sestormunth ablator mont unthalnagor."**

Out of the water came a water elemental who spoke in a bubbly voice, _"Who dares call upon the spirits of water?"_

Volkin stood up before kneeling, followed by Hinata, and said, "I be a shaman from da Darkspear Tribe. I be seekin' ta 'elp dis young shaman train in da ways o' da spirits. So far she ha' sworn loyalty tad Earth Spirit, and da Fire Spirit."

_"I will inform the Spirit of Water of your request; you will know what he desires within two days. Return here tomorrow at this time."_

Meanwhile, back at the house, Tsunami had gone into town for some supplies and Inari was staring at the person in black robes that had been brought in a few days ago.

"Hey kid, do you want some candy?" the man asked.

Inari (like any little kid) brightened up and said, "Yes please!"

The black robed man smile before saying, "It's in the black pouch on my belt; there is also a powder in there that will make your grandfather's sake taste even better. I've tried it and when the powder is added to sake you feel as if you had died and gone to heaven."

Inari ran over to the man's pouch and reached in before pulling out a mint and a clear bag of black powder.

"So I just add this to Grandpa's sake?" Inari asked after popping the mint into his mouth.

"Yup, he'll be thanking you soon enough. Although for now, why don't you not mention this to anyone? I don't think that his guards will be happy with anyone putting something in the sake," the man said with a kind smile.

Inari left the room, causing the man to chuckle at the child's naïveté and the guards' incompetence. Surely they would have told the stupid human brat not to take anything from a necromancer, but apparently they didn't do that. Now the Plague would spread and allow the Scourge to gain a foothold here!

Unfortunately for the necromancer, he didn't realize that the only ones who she infected were Inari and Tazuna; even if Tazuna shared the infected sake, humans and high/blood elves were the only ones that the Plague affected. Add in the fact that none of the other human present drank sake (and that Lintheion literally had no alcohol tolerance) led to only two infected people.

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A few days later, Naruto along with Irertne, Windhorn, and Volkin were guarding Tsunami and Inari while the rest went to the bridge with Tazuna. Irertne had finished extracting information from the necromancer the previous day and he has thus been disposed of. However, Inari had gotten sick this morning so Tsunami had placed him in bed just before Tazuna and the rest of the group had left.

_"Hey Naruto,"_ Irertne said suddenly.

"Yeah, what is it?" Naruto responded.

_"There's something about the brat's sickness that's bugging me. It seems familiar, and not in a good way."_

"How so?"

_"I haven't been around sickness in nearly five years, and that's what bugs me. It has been so long that I can't remember what it's like to be sick, so I don't get what about Inari's sickness is bothering me so much."_

Naruto head snapped up and he paled, "Wait, what happened to you homeland five years ago?"

Irertne cocked his head to the side before a look of fear crossed his face.

_"For the brat's sake I hope you're wrong,"_ the forsaken whispered before running inside up to Inari's room, followed shortly by Naruto while Volkin and Windhorn remained hidden.

Naruto ran into Inari's room to see Irertne waking Inari up.

"Inari, there is something very important that we must know. Did you take anything from the man in black that left the other day?" Naruto gently asked.

"Some candy and a powder he said would make Grandpa's sake taste good, why?" Inari asked before he started to cough up blood.

"Shit, he's got the Plague. That necromancer must have been hoping to infect both Tazuna and his guards but didn't realize that Tazuna was the only human who drank sake."

Tsunami came up the stairs and saw Irertne drawing his daggers while Inari collapsed to the floor. With a gasp she started to run in only to be stopped by Naruto who muttered, "Wait, we need to see what'll happen."

Inari pushed himself off the ground with a moan. Naruto narrowed his eyes as Inari lifted his head up and started to shuffle towards him and Tsunami with a vacant and dead, yet hungry look in his eyes.

_"Scourge spit,"_ Irertne muttered before decapitating the child undead.

"Irertne, you and I need to get to the bridge. We're the only ones who know that Tazuna was infected. Volkin and Windhorn can guard Tsunami," Naruto said while guiding the horror stricken Tsunami out of the room and handing her a vial filled with a green sleeping potion.

After informing Volkin and Windhorn about the situation, Irertne and Naruto sped down the road on their undead mounts towards the incomplete bridge. Normally, one would have to be near Kage-level to get the fastest mounts that anyone could breed, but being the adopted nephew of the Banshee Queen of the Forsaken had its bonuses.

"With the luck we've been having Zabuza and his apprentice are both undead along with any goons that Gatoh sends," Naruto shouted past the wind whipping past the two.

_"I cannot say that I disagree with you there, and with the fact that our current luck has much to be desired Tazuna will become undead before we get there," _Irertne responded as the bridge came into view.

As the two neared, they saw a dome of ice at the edge of a massive cloud of mist. Within the dome there were sounds of fireballs and the clanking of metal on cement while in the mist there was the sound of metal hitting metal and a loud orcish war cry. The two glanced at each other and nodded.

"HEY ZABUZA!" Naruto shouted, causing all fighting to stop.

The Kiri-nin called back through the mist, "What is it gaki? Do you want to be the first one to die?"

"No I wanted to ask a question. Have you felt feverish at all recently, hungry no matter how much you eat yet wanted to throw up at the same time?"

"…"

"I'm guessing that's a yes, well I have some news for you. You are infected by the Plague that wiped out the kingdom of Lordaeron. You will soon die and then become one of either the undead Scourge or the Forsaken. It will be rather easy to tell, if you have your mind, then you are Forsaken, while if not then you are a part of the Scourge and we will have to destroy you."

"How do you know all of that gaki? How do I know that you aren't making this up? And besides, that went away this morning."

"Irertne, remove your hood so Zabuza can see the effects of the Plague. And if it went away then you _must_ be Forsaken."

The undead rouge tossed his hood back as the mist faded and the dome collapsed. There was a moaning from where the dome had collapsed as a slumped figure stood up. Zabuza walked out of the mist over towards the icy rubble and the standing figure.

"Haku?" Zabuza whispered as he neared the fake hunter-nin.

"Haku" flashed through some hand seals and a mass of ice needles appeared behind her and shot towards all those on the bridge, including Zabuza. Zabuza and Serra both blocked the needles aimed at them with their weapons, Naruto and Lintheion summoned ice shields in front of both themselves and Irertne and Kakashi respectively, while Hinata threw down a stoneskin totem that protected her, Sasuke, and Tazuna.

"Scourge spit, she's under the Lich King's control!" Irertne snarled before seemingly disappearing.

At that point, Tazuna clutched his head and cried out in pain. Lintheion paled before throwing an Icebolt spell at his feet, freezing them in place.

"Hinata, Sasuke, get away from Tazuna! He's been infected with the Plague!" Naruto shouted while throwing Firebolts at Haku.

"Zabuza, no matter how you feel about Haku, you will be doing her a favor by destroying her! Her body is no longer her own, it now is under someone else's control!" Sergra shouted at Zabuza while dashing towards the one she was talking about.

Zabuza closed his eyes before whispering, "Forgive me Haku."

Zabuza opened his eyes and griped his sword before charging at his former apprentice. Haku pulled out a metal senbon and moved to block Zabuza's sword, but being undead slowed her down enough that she was too slow to stop Zabuza from beheading her.

"Ah, I didn't think you would have it in you Zabuza. You can kill your brat but you can't kill an old man. How pathetic," a voice from the unfinished end of the bridge said.

Everyone turned to see a man that barely reached up to Naruto's knee in front of an army of thugs. Before anyone else could say anything, the undead Tazuna broke free from the ice around his feet and shuffled towards the business tycoon. Gatoh just laughed before noticing that Tazuna wasn't bleeding blood even though his feet and ankles had been shredded. He was bleeding a green ichor.

"Heh, so that necro-bastard succeeded, Tazuna's dead and I don't even have to pay him," Gatoh said with a laugh.

"There is also something you aren't aware of, that 'necro-bastard' also infected the food _you _ate," a deep voice said as Volkin and Windhorn came up to the bridge, followed by nearly the entire population of Wave armed with any weapons they could grab.

Gatoh paled upon hearing that before he was tackled by Tazuna and a few of the thugs that had the Plague kick in. Naruto, Kakashi, Lintheion, Sergra, Irertne, Volkin, and Windhorn watch coldly as the tycoon was eaten alive while Hinata, Sasuke, and the Wave population became green in the face. When Gatoh was completely gone, several other thugs screamed as they started to shift from living into undead.

"Irertne, please tell me that something has been discovered as to what determines whether one becomes Scourge or Forsaken after ingesting the Plague," Naruto said as nearly the entire thug army fell to their knees.

_"Well, the most we've been able to determine is that the stronger your will the more likely you'll become Forsaken. So considering what we're facing…odds are nearly all will be Scourge and not Forsaken,"_ the undead replied.

"I don't care, this is my home, and I am willing to die to keep those undead bastards from placing one foot on it!" a Wave citizen shouted from the middle of the crowd behind the ninja and Horde soldiers.

"Hey Master Lintheion, just how good are you with that spell you were working on when we got to Konoha?" Naruto asked.

Lintheion blinked for a moment before grinning. He made some handseals as fire swirled around his hands before holding the spell as the undead army approached. Naruto made some seals of his own and sent the spell that he had spent the last week mastering. Shards of ice slammed down on the approaching force of undead as they shuffled forward.

"Once I release this spell, everyone get close and try to keep them off Naruto and I," Lintheion said before he opened his mouth wide and a cone of fire incinerated the fifteen undead that were in range of the blast.

"LOK'TAR OGAR!" Sergra shouted while cleaving a pair of undead in half.

"Hinata, start laying down any totems that will be useful in an extended battle. This is a fight that is going to last a while," Naruto said while charging up a spell.

Hinata nodded while throwing down a stoneskin totem and a searing totem before charging up a spell of her own. The people of Wave charged past the spell casters to defend their home from the Scourge, much like the people of Lordaeron did half a decade ago. This time however, it looked like the Scourge would not win. A bear-shifted Windhorn was plowing through the undead ranks like a bowling ball through pins, Naruto and Lintheion were using spells that effected a large area while simultaneously making sure not to hit allies, Hinata and Volkin were using totems and elemental spells to simultaneously hinder their enemies and aid their allies, Sergra along with Zabuza were mowing down numerous undead with single swings of their blades, Kakashi, Irertne, and Sasuke were picking off individual undead, and the people of Wave were matching the undead with surprising skill and ferocity.

Naruto snarled as an undead got to close for comfort and he had to pull off a Frost Nova spell, freezing it in place before moving back and hammering it with an Arcane Missiles spell. A kunai flew past his head to land in the throat of an undead behind him before detonating via explosive note. A quick nod of thanks to Sasuke was the only hint that Naruto acknowledged of how close he had come to death. A quick Firebolt was sent over Hinata's head to slam into the face of another undead, which caused the entire walking corpse to burst into flames. Hinata gave a nod of thanks before slashing at another undead with her ax. Naruto then froze briefly when he heard Sasuke cry out in pain before turning and seeing an undead Tazuna latched on to Sasuke's shoulder via bite.

"SHIT!" Naruto shouted before blasting Tazuna off Sasuke and taking him to the edge of the bridge and set him down. Windhorn had seen what happened and lumbered over before shifting out of bear form back to tauren form.

"I'll watch him Naruto, you get back to the battle," Windhorn said while taking some herbs out of a pouch and rubbing them into Sasuke's bite wound.

"Thanks Windhorn," Naruto muttered before standing up and walking back out to the bridge with his hands glowing blue, signifying that a frost spell was about to be cast.

"I've been working on this spell for a while, and this is just the place to test it. ICE AGE!" Naruto shouted while thrusting his glowing hands forward as snow began to fall and ice started forming on the surface of the bridge. When the ice reached the feet of one of the mindless undead, it crept up their legs while ignoring all those currently with their minds. Within a single minute, all of the undead that were under Scourge control were completely frozen.

Sergra blinked before walking up to one of the ice statues and taping the butt of her ax against it, causing the statue to completely shatter. Zabuza then grinned upon seeing that and hollered, "Everyone get off the bridge, I've got something to take care of these statues!"

Once everyone moved behind him, Zabuza concentrated chakra into his sword to the point that it glowed blue before pivoting and hurling it towards the frozen field. The blade spun through a row of statues before turning around like a boomerang and coming back for another swath. The blade then continued to destroy the statues while being mentally controlled by Zabuza via his chakra.

An exhausted Naruto walked forward when Zabuza caught his sword and said, "Hey Zabuza, I've got an offer for you."

"What gaki?" Zabuza asked as he placed his sword back on his back.

"I know of a way how you won't have to be hunted anymore and be with people that won't judge you for what you are."

"Gaki, I'm now undead…name anyone who could possibly not automatically judge me because of that."

Irertne walked forward and threw his hood off and asked, _"How about me?"_

Zabuza's eyes widened before Naruto continued, "There is an entire nation of undead that have freed themselves from the Lich King's domination. You won't be judged because of being undead because everyone else who lives there is undead as well. Plus, the one who runs it is my aunt."

Zabuza chuckled before saying, "One question though, do I still get to fight?"

_"Our homeland is still filled with some scattering of the Scourge and a human group called the Scarlet Crusade that want to destroy us and all undead. You won't be short of any enemies and if those are too easy there are still the Plaguelands that is stuffed full of Scourge minions,"_ Irertne put in, causing Zabuza to grin under the bandages he kept wrapped around his face.

Naruto gave a slight smile before walking back to Windhorn to ask about Sasuke's condition.

"I will not lie calf. Sasuke is not going to live through the bite he got," Windhorn said which caused an eves dropping Kakashi to gasp.

"Y-you mean he's going to …" Kakashi started only for Naruto to interrupt.

"There is another aspect of the Plague that the calf here didn't mention; it is not spread just by grain. If it somehow gets in your blood you _will_ be infected. Though Sasuke is fortunate in that a great number of the Forsaken were bitten by other undead rather than eating infected grain."

"So Sasuke going to become undead with a likeliness of being Forsaken rather than Scourge."

"Correct. Though we still have to be wary. While the majority of the Scourge came about from eating infected grain, there is still a fair number that were bitten. Being bitten only increases the odds of becoming Forsaken, not guarantee it."

Kakashi nodded before turning around to help some of the wounded. Somehow, Sasuke had been the only person to be bitten, but there were still plenty that had wounds from the armed undead. Apparently Tazuna had enough of his mind that he was able to keep from biting the people of his country but that was it. All the other undead that showed up were armed. Hopefully these were all that were infected.

Zabuza walked up to Naruto and calmly said, "Find some people who can do damage to large areas, we need to take out Gatoh's base."

Naruto nodded and gathered Lintheion, Kakashi, and Volkin before Zabuza led them to Gatoh's base.

"I wish we had a warlock, one quick infernal and our problem would be solved," Naruto muttered as he looked at the mansion.

"Unfortunately we don't, we'll have to do this the old fashioned way," Lintheion calmly said.

"I've got an idea, I need the rest of you to make sure that none leave the building and I'll take care of the rest," Kakashi said before disappearing.

Everyone looked at each other and shrugged before going out to accomplish their task. Zabuza covered his side of the building in mist and used his silent killing to destroy any undead that entered the mist, both Naruto and Lintheion modified a few spells to cover their walls in ice, while Volkin slammed down a totem that turned any undead into ashes. Five minutes later, Kakashi gathered all of them and had them pull out.

"Okay Kakashi, what is it?" Zabuza asked while leaning against a tree on the same hill they started on.

Kakashi gave an eye smile before forming half a hand seal and the entire building erupted into flames.

"I layered the entire building with explosive tags on gas pipes," Kakashi simply said.

"Alright, we need to get back to the bridge," Naruto said before pulling out the crystal his mount was sealed into and unsealing the skeletal horse.

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Later that night, Sasuke awoke as a Forsaken (much to his surprising delight) with a fully developed Sharingan. Apparently he had awoken his bloodline on the bridge and the Plague advanced it farther than it was before. Despite the fact that Tazuna was dead, the people of Wave all worked on completing the bridge and it was done within the week. So the group from Konoha was at the bridge with two additions. Zabuza was going because let's face it, where in the Elemental Countries would an undead fit in? But the other…

"Are you sure that you want to come with us Tsunami?"Naruto asked the woman.

"Yes, I lost my husband, my father, and my son during a two year period here; there are just too many painful memories," the woman responded while adjusting the bag slung over her shoulder.

Naruto nodded, before turning around and heading towards Konoha along with all the others leaving the recovering nation. Unknown to the people with Wave, there would be spies in Wave to make sure that the Plague was wiped out from the island nation.

Speaking of the people of Wave…

"Hey we still need to name this bridge!" one called out.

"How about The Bridge of Heroes, in honor of all those that died to give this country its freedom," another suggested.

"'Tis a good name, The Bridge of Heroes it is!"

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AN: Well that's it. Like I said before the conclusion was what I feel to be an original one and I have only ever seen Tsunami leaving once. As for the other aspects, not once have I seen Tazuna die or the people of Wave actually fight; I wanted to see those things at least once, so I put them in. I purposely didn't say what the Spirit of Water wanted Hinata to do in order to gain its loyalty. And I probably won't until after the Chuunin Exam arc or maybe even after the Time Skip (can anyone say Outland for the Time Skip?). Also, the only one of the Horde characters that is remotely an actual character in WoW is Lintheion.

AN2: Now that that stuff is over I look forward to writing the next chapter.


	5. A Blending of Problems

AN: Quite a few surprises in the last chapter huh? Anyway I am still leaning towards a Naruto/Sergra pairing and may have a Lintheion/Tsunami pairing.

Last Time:

_Naruto nodded, before turning around and heading towards Konoha along with all the others leaving the recovering nation. Unknown to the people with Wave, there would be spies in Wave to make sure that the Plague was wiped out from the island nation. _

_Speaking of the people of Wave…_

_"Hey we still need to name this bridge!" one called out._

_"How about The Bridge of Heroes, in honor of all those that died to give this country its freedom," another suggested._

_"'Tis a good name, The Bridge of Heroes it is!"_

Now:

Naruto yawned as the group sat around the campfire. The specific mission Team Seven had to Wave would be classified as a failure because of the death of the employer Tazuna. Despite that fact, Team Seven helped stop the spread of the Scourge and kept the massive undead legion from gaining a foothold in the Elemental Countries. Granted, doing that required backup in the form of five members of the Horde as well as aid from the missing-nin turned Forsaken Zabuza. The mission also resulted in the death and raising of one of Team Seven's members as yet another Forsaken, which Sasuke was taking incredibly well.

The effects of Sasuke's "rebirth" (for lack of a better term) could be seen in subtle changes. Grayer skin, greasier hair, a yellowish glow to the eyes, and so forth. When Sasuke learned that despite being undead there wasn't any way to halt the decaying process, he started to fear for his eyes before Irertne explained that his chakra would most likely replace his Sharingan once his eyes decayed away. When asked to explain, Irertne had simply asked how was it that some of the Forsaken, himself included, that no longer had lower jaws were still able to talk. Before meeting with the Shinobi nations, all the Forsaken knew was that some kind of internal energy was effectively replacing the things that had rotted away, lower jaws and eyes for example. Then when meeting with Shinobi, it was discovered that chakra was what was giving them the senses that they lost the physical means for.

Lintheion sighed while glancing at Tsunami and calmly said, "Lady Tsunami, I wanted to say that I am sorry for what you have lost because of the Horde's actions."

Tsunami turned to Lintheion with a puzzled look before saying, "What do you mean Lintheion-sama? The Horde kept Wave from being completely infected by the Scourge so I fail to see how it is the Horde's fault for the Scourge's actions."

"It was the Horde that discovered the Elemental Nations which led to the Scourge finding out about them. Thus it was the Horde's fault for your pain. I am also sorry that I couldn't do anything personally to keep you from feeling the pain I felt when the Scourge destroyed my people."

_"For the love of the Dark Lady, snap out of it Lin! You don't know that the Scourge wouldn't have found out about the Elemental Nations if the Horde didn't. If that were to happen __**think**__ about what would have happened to Wave then! For a mage you sure can be an idiot at times,"_ Irertne snapped (how he managed that while missing a jaw I'm not sure).

Lintheion blinked before staring at the fire with an embarrassed look on his face. Naruto chuckled before calmly saying, "You didn't think of that did you Master Lintheion? Odds are if the Scourge had been there and the Horde never contacted Konoha, we would be servants of the Scourge right now, so I for one am grateful for the Horde finding out about the Elemental Nations."

"There is that," Lintheion muttered.

All other conversation was cut off as an armored figure stumbled into the clearing and muttered in a voice halfway between the Forsaken and an orc's, "I'm looking for Konoha."

Sergra's eyes narrowed and she picked up her ax and was about to bring it down on the figure before Lintheion spoke up and said, "Wait."

Lintheion and Naruto both walked towards the figure who was breathing heavily, leaning against a tree, and leaking green ichor from multiple wounds.

"Hal'Dok?" Naruto whispered.

"H-hey midget," the identified Hal'Dok said while taking his helmet off to reveal a very dark green skin color and glowing ice blue eyes, causing Sergra to growl.

"Death Knight," the orcess snarled while tightening her grip on her ax.

"It's okay Sergra, Hal'Dok left his old master and has even saved our lives on occasion," Naruto said with a slight smile.

"Stand aside calf and I'll see what I can do for his wounds," Windhorn said while walking up to the orc death knight.

Zabuza leaned to Irertne and asked, "What's a death knight and why does he sound a little like you?"

Irertne looked over and replied, _"Death knights are mostly living soldiers of the Scourge but in recent months several have been leaving the Scourge to join with their own people, in both the Horde and Alliance. While distrusted they are accepted as necessary evils, much like warlocks and the Forsaken to a degree. They are unique like Shinobi in that they use something only they use: runes. I don't know how they work; only that they are dead, and yes that pun was intended, useful and very powerful, the Lich King Arthas Menethil himself was a Death Knight before he fused with the old Lich King Ner'zhul, just to give you an idea of how powerful they are."_

"Considering what Arthas has done I would think that you would hate death knights."

_"Don't get me wrong, I hate Arthas just as much as the next Forsaken but I have taken a policy of judging everyone as an individual, a policy shared by most Forsaken as it is so rarely applied to us."_

(1 hour later)

"Let me get this right, you went undercover with a battalion of the Scourge to a village called Otogakure by taking out their death knight and taking his place," Naruto said to which Hal'Dok nodded.

"There you observed as a treaty was made with the Oto leader, a Konoha missing-nin by the name of Orochimaru," another nod, "the treaty basically said that the Scourge would help Orochimaru destroy Konoha during the Chuunin Exams coming up along with Sand and granting Orochimaru non-body swapping immortality in exchange for allowing to turn Oto into undead servants of the Lich King," yet another nod, "then the necromancer in charge had the undead kill Orochimaru's guards before capturing Orochimaru in a magical trap and turning him into a kind of lich, only doesn't look as 'undead' and had a lot more chakra," a fourth nod. "At which point you were discovered and had to fight your way out and try to get to Konoha only to get lost and wind up finding us by accident."

"That about sums it up," a bandaged and bare chest Hak'Dor said while moving his arms around to loosen them up.

"Okay I say that we need to get this info to Konoha ASAP. Some of us will need to ride double back, and Windhorn do you think you can carry someone on your back in travel form?" Lintheion asked.

"I believe so but my kodo would be faster; so we have Linthion, Hal'Dok, the calf, Volkin, Sergra, me, and Irertne with mounts while we have Zabuza, Sasuke, Hinata, Kakashi, and Tsunami without mounts. That means that at least one will have to be on an undead mount if two were to share my kodo."

"I thought Shinobi could move faster than anything?"Tsunami asked with a look of puzzlement on her face.

"Yes, Shinobi can move faster than any others on foot, but they don't have the stamina bred into the living mounts or lack of fatigue in the undead ones. Shinobi are just as good as the fastest mounts for short distances while mounts are better for longer periods of travel," Kakashi calmly responded.

Those with mounts pulled the sealing crystals out and with a cloud of smoke there were the mounts of the Horde. Two undead horses, one large flightless bird called a hawkstrider, one massive wolf, one raptor, one large beast with a forked horn called a kodo, and one heavily armored skeletal horse-thing called a deathcharger. Tsunami quickly hopped onto Sergra's mount, the wolf, while Kakashi and Sasuke both got onto Windhorn's kodo, Hinata onto Volkin's raptor, and Zabuza sharing Naruto's horse.

"Everyone hold on, these mounts are among the fastest that the Horde has!" Sergra shouted as the mounts charged forward.

Those not used to the speed of the mounts tightened their holds on the speeding mounts (either with chakra or by wrapping their arms around the one in front of them … or both). Lintheion growled slightly before he started to move in the middle of the group and started to cast a spell. Naruto glanced at his master then calmed upon seeing the spell he was preparing to cast.

"MASS TELEPORTATION: KONOHA!" Lintheion shouted as a large circular diagram appeared underneath the group before flashing and causing the group to instantly appear a few yards outside of the Konoha gates.

"WE NEED TO SPEAK WITH LORD HOKAGE!" Naruto shouted as the group ran past the guards without so much as slowing down. Those not familiar with teleportation spells (meaning those from the Elemental Nations minus Naruto) had to fight to keep the contents of their stomachs in while the others simply guided their mounts towards the Hokage Tower. Seeing the urgency the crowds cleared a path for the group on their way towards the leader of the Leaf village.

Once reaching the tower, the group dismounted (a few needing help) and went in to inform the Hokage of the news that they had. The door to Sarutobi's office was closed so Sergra calmly opened it (TRANSLATION: she took her ax off and shattered the door much like she did before Wave) before the group marched in.

"Old Man, we have a serious problem," Naruto calmly said.

"Why what's wrong? What happened on the mission?" Sarutobi asked before noticing Zabuza.

"Before you say anything, we have more important problems than there being a missing-nin in your office. Orochimaru is dead."

"How is that a problem? That's a good thing."

"Hal'Dok went undercover with a band of the Scourge here in the Elemental Nations that met with the leader of the village Otogakure no Sato. The treaty formed said that the leader of Oto would give them people to turn undead if they helped him destroy Konoha and gave him non-body swapping related immortality. The necromancer gave him immortality in the form of turning him undead. Orochimaru is the leader of Oto. During the upcoming Chuunin Exams Oto along with Suna and the Scourge is going to attack."

"Well…damn."

"That's what I thought, after all I can't let the ally of my new people be destroyed now can I?" Zabuza asked.

"What do you mean by 'new people'?" Sarutobi asked while reaching for a kunai.

"Throw your kunai at my arm, you'll see."

Sarutobi narrowed his eyes before Naruto rolled his and simply took a dagger and slashed Zabuza's forearm. Sarutobi's eyes widened in understanding when he saw not blood flow out, but a green ichor instead.

"You're one of the Forsaken now," Sarutobi muttered, causing Sasuke to step forward and calmly say:

"As am I Hokage-sama."

Sarutobi snapped his head towards Sasuke before sighing and turning to mock glare at Naruto and say, "You're trying to give me a heart attack aren't you?"

Naruto just grinned.

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Two weeks later, Team Seven along with Lintheion and Hak'Dor were taking Zabuza to the Tirisfal Glades to show him where his new people lived (for lack of a better tern). The second week had been spent traveling north to get out of the Elemental Countries. Normally it would take months to get out of the Elemental Countries, but the group had tireless undead mounts provided for them by some of the Forsaken in Konoha. Naruto and Hak'Dor used their own while the others had to adjust to the horses. Lintheion had it easier than Zabuza and the rest of Team Seven because he was used to a mount period, the others had to get used to the speed that the mounts moved at. That took up the first week.

Anyway, the group was just leaving the northern edge of the Elemental Countries and about to enter a pass through the mountains that led straight to the Barrens. Up until shortly before the Horde made contact with Konoha, the pass had been blocked, and it was by accident that the pass was cleared.

Part way through the pass when the group was sitting around the camp fire, Zabuza turned to Naruto and asked, "Hey Naruto, you were born and raised in Konoha right, then how come you're a mage and not a Shinobi?"

"Master Lintheion was the Horde's ambassador to Konoha and part of the agreement was that he would take one person in the Shinobi program as an apprentice. I was the one that he chose. At the time I still couldn't get a single Bunshin right but I took to magic like a duck to water," Naruto responded while writing in a journal.

"Do you know why you couldn't get a Bunshin?"

"I suspect that it was because of the mass of chakra I had, added to the immense imbalance in my chakra. I quite literally had more chakra than some Kages while I was in the Academy, but it was almost entirely the physical energy rather than a balance of physical and mental energy. And after I left Konoha I only gained more. The mental training that I had after leaving Konoha balanced out the influence on my chakra from something that I am not allowed to say. Basically, I have a source of near infinite power sealed within me, but it is completely useless to me."

"NANI!? YOU JUST SAID THAT YOU HAD A SOURCE OF NEAR INFINITE POWER AND YOU CALL IT _USELESS_!" Sasuke shouted.

"I'm a mage; the source of power is basically a large warrior. I use mana; its power is the rage that warriors generate in battle."

"So, can you use both mana and chakra?" Zabuza asked.

Naruto paused before sighing and saying, "To be quite honest I have no idea, I am the first mage to ever come from the Elemental Countries."

"Why not ask the ones who use chakra from outside the Elemental Countries?"

Naruto chuckled before responding, "There are none. Shinobi are the only ones in the world that use chakra. I suppose that we could experiment with Hinata and I using chakra, and if it works then we would have a backup plan in case for whatever reason we can't use one or the other."

Zabuza stood up and walked over to a stream near the camp before calling Naruto over.

"I want to see if you can use jutsu as well as spells. I'm going to show you one of the simplest water jutsu taught in Kiri, can you still gather your chakra?" Zabuza asked the mage.

"I'm not sure, let me try," Naruto said while forming a rough Ram Seal (he could barely remember what it was like) and having Zabuza correct it without berating him very hard.

Naruto closed his eyes in concentration while reaching in for his chakra; it had been so long that he barely remembered what it felt like. To most normal people a single year wouldn't be that long but when you go through the life and death battles and the sheer brutality of Lintheion's training methods to him that single year had felt like a lifetime. Two hours later Naruto was still searching for his chakra and Zabuza and Sasuke were sitting around the fire keeping watch. Since they had no need of sleep they were the best ones for the job.

All of a sudden, there was a blast of chakra that flattened both Forsaken and sent several tents over. Zabuza, Lintheion, and Kakashi were the first ones to recover and looked over towards Naruto who had a look of heavy concentration on his face as he tried to pull his chakra back under control. Apparently the year of not using chakra hadn't slowed its development at all, but it did throw what little control Naruto had before down the drain.

Zabuza appeared behind Naruto and with a quick chop knocked Naruto out and caused the chakra in the air to disperse. All of the shinobi and those that had training with chakra were staring wide-eyed at Naruto. They were the only ones that really understood how much chakra Naruto was releasing, and even then Sasuke and Hinata had only a vague idea. Zabuza and Kakashi on the other hand, the amount of chakra in the initial wave had more chakra in it than either of them. Zabuza could only compare it to combining the chakra stores of both the Sandiame Hokage and the Mizukage that he had tried to kill long ago. Kakashi could only compare the amount to the Kyuubi, yet it didn't have the feeling of anger and rage in it.

"What the fuck just happened?" Hal'Dok muttered while gripping his twin rune-axes.

"Naruto has more chakra than I imagined, the only things that I can think of with more are the Biju. What you felt was just a drop in the well," Kakashi said in awe of the sheer amount of chakra that Naruto had.

"Wait a minute, sensei when is Naruto's birthday?" Sasuke asked in a suspicious tone, causing Hinata's eyes to widen as she realized what he implying.

"The tenth of October, the same day of the Kyuubi attack."

"That explains so much, Naruto has the Kyuubi sealed inside of him doesn't he?"

"Yeah, Naruto has used the Kyuubi's power once, shortly beyond where we are now. It was at that point that we realized that the fox's power wasn't chakra. I was able to recognize the feel of it as the rage harnessed by warriors, but the Kyuubi has _a lot _more than any other warrior that I have ever met," Lintheion explained.

"How much more?" Zabuza asked.

"Alright say that most warriors can have anywhere between zero and one hundred rage at a time, just to put a scale on it. When not in battle, warriors don't have any rage. For the Kyuubi it's different. His amount of rage would max out at over one million and it only goes down when he makes an attack. The feel that I have heard shinobi that survived the Kyuubi attack describe the Kyuubi's 'chakra' is a match to that of those who are skilled enough to sense a warrior's rage.

"Using the same scale for chakra, Kakashi I would place you as maxing out at seventy while Zabuza would max out at eighty. From what I was able to feel and calculating the amount of chakra that would have been naturally contained and the difference based upon that I can't completely sense chakra Naruto was at nearly nine thousand."

Everyone paled upon hearing that. Naruto had so much raw power within him _plus_ a near all powerful demon sealed within him.

"There has to be some kind of catch to having that much power," Hinata whispered.

"Yeah, imagine how much trouble Naruto is going to have controlling all of that chakra," Zabuza calmly responded.

"And now that he's accessed it he'll _need_ to learn how to control it. Kakashi, please tell me that you have most of your village's chakra control exercises mastered," Zabuza continued while looking at the still-living shinobi.

"Yeah, odds are that there are several that both villages know but we'll also have ones unique to our village," Kakashi responded.

"Part of my deal with the Hokage was that I wouldn't teach Kiri secrets, but in this case I'll make an exception. If Naruto doesn't learn to control his chakra then he has enough that he could potentially destroy an entire village if it gets out of control."

Hak'Dor and Lintheion both became wide-eyed and Hak'Dor stammered, "H-he has _that_ much power?"

"Yes, but he can't control it. We'll talk to him about it in the morning, for now let's get some sleep."

Everyone except for Zabuza and Sasuke went to bed and went to sleep while the two Forsaken kept watch.

~*~

Naruto awoke the next morning with a killer headache and soreness all over his entire body. He groaned as he sat up before muttering, "If this is what a hang-over feels like, I'm never drinking in my life."

A chuckle drew Naruto's gaze to Zabuza who was sitting by a dying fire as the sun rose into the sky.

"Well gaki, you should be proud to mostly likely be the human with the most chakra in the world. The sheer amount that you put out last night Kakashi says only compares to that of Biju. If any of them actually have chakra anyway," Zabuza said while muttering the last part.

Naruto's eyes widened upon hearing that he might have the largest chakra reserves in the world. But, he was a mage. His chakra had been unbalanced before but it couldn't have been _that_ unbalanced could it?

"No matter how much chakra one of us has we should get going," Kakashi said as he finished putting his tent away.

Naruto nodded and started sealing his items away into crystals and placing those in his backpack and the pouches on his belt. He was sure glad that Master Lintheion had taught him that, it certainly made things simpler and easier in the long run.

A few hours later the group was finally into the Barrens which were aptly named. It was at that point that Kakashi started to instruct Sasuke and Naruto in a chakra control exercise. The exercise was designed for people with larger stores of chakra which suited both Naruto and Sasuke since we all know about Naruto's amount of chakra and Sasuke had much larger than average chakra stores. In addition, Kakashi thought of a jutsu that would be perfect for Naruto. It was one that required no control, just pot loads of chakra. Kage Bunshin. Kakashi himself could only create a total of ten at once and that was twice per day if he didn't want to kill himself. Naruto on the other hand, when Kakashi told him to put as little chakra into the technique as he could he didn't create clones; he created a _sea _of blondes.

"Well…this will certainly help with chakra control," Kakashi said once he regained control of his speech functions.

At that point on of Naruto's clones called out, "Hey, I've still got the same amount of mana!"

Hearing this caused Naruto to let out an evil grin. He could imagine the ways that this could be used in battle. From Kakashi's description of the jutsu, chakra was evenly split between the number of clones and everything that the clones learned, he himself learned. But if _mana_ wasn't split between the clones, then he was a one mage army. Heck with enough clones from far enough away he could potentially take over an entire ninja village by himself (not one of the major five but a smaller one).

Once the group got out of the sea of blondes, every clone in the sea began the chakra control exercise. While they were doing that, the group continued on their journey. If any Horde or Alliance were too pass by they would see a small group composing of humans, an orc, and a blood elf walking away from the sea of human blondes that were all seemingly standing in place while trying to step on air like they were trying to go up steps.

About the same time the next day, Naruto groaned in pain as he clutched his head. Everyone stopped as Kakashi asked, "How many clones popped?"

"I'd say, maybe twenty five," Naruto grunted out while forcing the pain away.

"Have the rest of the clones disperse in groups of ten with five minutes in between. Hopefully the clones will all be gone by the time we get back. If you feel up to it after the first five dispersals have the clones increase the number by five."

Naruto nodded before giving the mental directions to his clones. Five minutes later he cried out before collapsing.

Zabuza caught Naruto and asked, "What the hell happened? Are we under attack?!"

"No, stupid clones…too many…five groups burst…couldn't tell others had…ouch," Naruto groaned out.

Everyone else sweatdropped upon hearing the reason. Apparently the clones couldn't tell when others had burst if they couldn't see them and so five different groups had burst at the same time. Lintheion sighed and suggested, "Why don't we just stick Naruto on a mount and have him ride the rest of the way. Kakashi, would it be easier on him if he were unconscious?"

"Probably, do you want one of us to knock him out?" Kakashi asked while walking over to do so.

"No, it will build up tolerance to mental pain if he has to go through all of those. If this happens often enough than he may be able to shrug off attempts to shatter his mind completely. Mages are trained to resist effects on our minds but priests are far better at manipulating the mind than we are."

Kakashi nodded in understanding before motioning his mount forward. Naruto on the other hand groaned at his master's sadistic training methods. At that point Sasuke realized that perhaps having enough chakra to rival the Biju wasn't the best thing in the world if he had to go through the pain that Naruto did.

"Better you than me Blondie," Sasuke said as he passed the blonde demon container.

~*~

Two weeks later, the group had arrived in Tirisfal Glades with Naruto in pain the entire trip. Just as they were walking off, Naruto felt the final five clones dispersing. He managed to contain his joy upon realizing that they didn't disperse on their own, something destroyed them. With a slight frown, Naruto decided to bring it up later.

"So this is Trisfal Glades," Hinata muttered as she looked around.

"Yup. The ruined castle you see there was once the capital of the kingdom of Lordaeron and home of the king. The last true king died when the death knight Arthas rammed the runeblade Frostmourne through his chest and claimed himself to be king," Naruto explained as he forced away his headache.

"I must say that when you told me that the Scourge nearly wiped out every living thing, I was expecting more wasteland than this," Zabuza said as he scratched at his elbow.

Naruto chuckled as the group entered the ruins of the once mighty castle. Naruto had been here multiple times before and yet it still never failed to sadden him how quickly a once mighty nation fell to the hands of a usurper. Shrugging the thoughts off as he stepped into the elevator to take the group down to the Undercity, Naruto couldn't keep the smirk off his face when Sasuke, Kakashi, Hinata, and Zabuza jumped when they felt the floor beneath them start to move down.

"Calm down, this is simply the ride down to the Undercity," Naruto said as the ones that hadn't left the Elemental Nations before started to draw weapons.

That calmed them down, but Kakashi and Zabuza were still ready to reach for weapons at a moment's notice. When the lift reached the bottom, those four recoiled upon seeing the abominations that stood guard. Naruto and Lintheion motioned them on as they walked past the abominations without a care in the world. The shinobi and one shaman looked at one another before following their guides deeper into the massive, subterranean city. Once they exited the tunnel that led to the lift, the sight that they saw took their breath away, before them was a pair of levels where orcs, blood elves, tauren, trolls, and, most frequently, Forsaken wondering about buying and selling various items from weapons to armor to various herbs to nearly anything that one could think of.

"Welcome the Undercity's Trade Quarter. The city is divided into different quarters, each focusing on a different area of interest. The inn is on the upper levels of the trade quarter, and it is the only place in all of Undercity that has beds," Naruto explained.

"Why? Don't the ones living here have homes?" Hinata asked.

"The only ones that stay here on a regular basis are either a) undead and therefore do not need to sleep, breathe, drink, eat, etc. or b) are never here for periods of time long enough to warrant such.

"Anyway, not counting the Trade Quarter Undercity has: the War Quarter, the Rouges' Quarter, the Apothecarium, the Magic Quarter, and last and anything but least the Royal Quarter. The Royal Quarter is where Sylvanas Windrunner, the Banshee Queen of the Forsaken, rules with the dreadlord Verimathras as her second-in-command."

"Dreadlord?" Zabuza asked.

"A demon from the Twisting Nether, also called a Nethrazim. You'll know him when you see him. Oh and Zabuza, don't try to call yourself a demon in his presence. He'd kill you permanently without a second thought."

Now if it was anyone else, Zabuza would have kicked their ass but as it was Naruto and he owed Naruto quite a bit, Zabuza decided to take Naruto's word for it.

When the group entered the Royal Quarter, they immediately spotted Verimathras. The demon was kind of hard to miss with his armor, wings, horns, and hoofed feet. What only Hal-Dok, Naruto, and Lintheion saw right away was the grey-skinned woman next to the demon. The group walked up to the two and all except Lintheion kneeled/bowed. Lintheion was the only one who got away with never kneeling or bowing to Sylvanas Windrunner, and both preferred it that way. Naruto, _could_ get away with it, but he still wasn't comfortable with it.

_**"Naruto, brother. It has been a while since you have stopped by. Why is it that you have brought shinobi here?"**_ Sylvanas asked with a smile upon looking at the only members of her family that she was comfortable around. Her only remaining sister and her were uncomfortable around each other considering that she had married a member of the Alliance and Sylvanas was the leader of a part of the Horde.

"I'm afraid that this isn't a pleasure trip sister, the Scourge has attempted to use their plague in the shinobi nations," Lintheion said to his sister.

Sylvanas's red eyes widened as she heard that. That was bad. The strongest members of the Scourge always had some form of combat training in life and the shinobi nations was practically a breeding ground for combat. The only possible upside was that since shinobi were trained to resist mental techniques, typically genjutsu, there might be an increase in the number of Forsaken.

"There is also one other thing. We have brought the first shinobi that is also a Forsaken with us," Naruto said as he stood up, Zabuza rising as well.

Sylvanas raised an eyebrow. This was interesting. And potentially a boon for the Forsaken. He would need some testing to check his combat level and how loyal he would be, but this was a great benefit to the Forsaken.

_**"He will need to be tested in combat to see where he would stand, but I see no reason why he would be rejected. We forsaken are all that we have. As for the rest of you, feel free to look around our city, just stay away from the lower levels of the Apothacarium, more for the sake of your stomachs than anything else. Is there anything else?"**_

"Well, my teammate Sasuke did become a Forsaken, but he would rather remain a Konoha nin than join the Forsaken for now," Naruto said as Sasuke stood up.

"I swore an oath to be loyal to Konoha first when I took this headband. I do not want to have to break that oath," Sasuke said with conviction in his voice as he looked Sylvanas in the eye.

_**"If that is what you desire then I see no reason to deny you that. Any other surprises brother?"**_

"No that's it," Lintheion said with a chuckle.

_**"Good, because there is something that you and Hak'Dor are needed to do."**_

Naruto understood the unsaid message and took the others for a tour of Undercity. When they were gone, Hak'Dor spoke up for the first time since entering, "What is it Lady Windrunner?"

_**"Kael'thas."**_

__"What has that bastard done this time? First he joined up with that egotistical maniac Illadin, and now what?" Lintheion asked with anger in his voice. Lintheion, along with most of the blood elves, took the actions of their prince hard. While he did find a way to reduce the hunger that they had, he also did many unforgivable acts, prince or no.

_**"We have reason to believe that he is trying to bring Kil'jaeden to Azeroth. You need to go to the Isle of Quel'Danas and stop him. There you will meet up with others from different parts of the Horde, including some shinobi from Konoha that have traveled to Outland, and you must stop him by any means necessary. Even if you must kill him."**_

"Oh make no mistake, should Kael get in our way, I will have no hesitation in killing that traitor," Lintheion said with a growl.

_**"Now go. Oh, and there is something that I would like to talk to you in private about brother,"**_ Sylvanas said with a pointed look at at Verimathras.

The dreadlord growled before turning around and leaving the large room, followed by Hak'Dor. Lintheion sighed before letting go of the mask that he had up all day and let the sadness that he was feeling come to his face.

_**"Six years already huh,"**_ Sylvanas said with a sad smile of her own.

"Yeah, I miss them so much. Our people lost so much those few days. We went from a prosperous people to becoming nearly extinct. And our family suffered as well," Lintheion said as his sister walked up and the two shared a familial hug.

_**"I know brother, you lost your family to that bastard and despite all that I did I was still unable to stop him from reaching the Sunwell."**_

"You did your best; I don't blame you for that. The only one that I blame for the state that the blood elves are in is that bastard Arthas. I just wish I could do more to save my family."

_**"You were out of mana, what could you have possibly done? You weren't a warrior or any good with weapons so there was nothing that you could have done. I know that neither of them would have blamed you for what happened. You did your best, I did my best.**_

__"I just with that they could have met Naruto. I know that my wife would have loved him and my son would have enjoyed having an older brother."

_**"You do know that you'll have to move on sometime right? I knew my sister-in-law well enough that she wouldn't have wanted you to mourn forever. I am not saying that you should go out and get married right after you get back from Quel'Danas but at least move on. They are the kind of dead that doesn't come back."**_

"I know but…it's hard. I miss them so much," Lintheion said with tears in his eyes as he thought about his family that was killed and eaten by the Scourge.

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AN: And that's a wrap. That's another chapter done. Some things that were in ReflectionsOfReality's revie seemed interesting to me so I addressed some of them (mana & Kage Bunshins along with the Kyuubi being the two big ones) and will probably address more in later chapters.


	6. The Chuunin Exams Begin

AN: Yet another chapter for this fic. A few reviewers have commented on the way that I did things in the last chapter, most notably Naruto's sheer amount of chakra. The most that I will probably give Naruto in ways of using chakra is blasts of chakra and Kage Bunshin. I see this Naruto as more of a mage than a shinobi. Plus, with Kage Bunshin his chakra is divided up into an equal amount of clones but each clone has the same amount of mana as the original Naruto did. Thus it is simply more practical to stick with just kage bunshins and spells.

AN2: Another reviewer asked about the "levels" of Akatsuki, I will probably have the "weaker" members be around sixty while Itachi and Konan being closer to sixty five and Pien being about seventy. Mandara on the other hand, he is without a doubt going to be level eighty. I plan on Naruto and the "Konoha 12" as I've heard them called taking out both Mandara and Arthas…eventually anyway. They are not going to be able to come close to fighting Akatsuki until post time skip…and Outland.

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Last Time:

**"You do know that you'll have to move on sometime right? I knew my sister-in-law well enough that she wouldn't have wanted you to mourn forever. I am not saying that you should go out and get married right after you get back from Quel'Danas but at least move on. They are the kind of dead that doesn't come back."**

_"I know but…it's hard. I miss them so much," Lintheion said with tears in his eyes as he thought about his family that was killed and eaten by the Scourge._

Now:

Naruto gave Lintheion a sad smile upon seeing him exit the Royal Quarter. Naruto had been around his master long enough to recognize what the elf was thinking, no matter how many masks he threw up to block his emotions. The only person who could possibly read Lintheion better than Naruto was Sylvanas.

Naruto could tell that Sylvanas and Lintheion had been talking about Lintheion's family that died in the attacks of the Scourge. Naruto only knew the bare minimum about them. He knew that Lintheion once had a son and wife. He knew that he son would have been around his own age. He knew that his wife's name was Iraededa and his son's name was Reyadriel. He knew that Iraededa was a priestess and Reyadriel had a few months training as a rouge. He knew that they were killed by the Scourge. But other than that there was little that Naruto knew about his master's family.

Lintheion walked up to the group and spoke up, "I'm going to loan you my hearthstone so that you may quickly get back to Konoha. I have something that I need to help do before I go back."

"Family business?" Naruto asked.

"Partially, but a good deal of it is guild business."

Naruto nodded lightly in understanding. Lintheion was part of a guild that was now more of an organization than a guild, but he had been one of its original members long before he came to Konoha. Its members were spread all over Azeroth and Outland doing various missions and the like in addition to helping each other out if one of them had something that they couldn't do alone. Naruto never did find out the name of the guild, but he did know that Hak'Dor was also in the guild. It was a guild policy to not give out the name to those not in it. Not a policy that Naruto understood, but one that he would respect.

Although that left a slight problem, "How are we going to get back to Konoha? There was something that destroyed my last five clones, and nothing native to that area would be strong enough to do that."

"Do you have your hearthstone?" Hak'Dor asked while tossing his to Kakashi.

Naruto blinked before smacking himself in the head. Lintheion chuckled as he handed one to Hinata and another one to Sasuke before saying, "These are called hearthstones. What they do is take you to a predetermined location. All of these are set for Konoha. However once used they need to recharge, you can tell when it's done recharging because the blue spiral on the stone's surface is a bright blue. The length of time that it takes for a hearthstone to recharge is unpredictable, sometimes is will be a few days and other times it will just be a few seconds. You can reset the location or get a new hearthstone at any innkeeper.

"These are from the inn that just set up next to the Hokage Tower. I think that the Hokage is going to start handing them out to ANBU and the like when they go out on missions. They are surprisingly cheep to make so I would be surprised if he didn't."

"How do you activate them?" Sasuke asked while shaking his up and down next to his ear.

Naruto chuckled before Hak'Dor answered, "Simply concentrate on the location that the stone is set to. If you don't remember where the stone is set to, then all you need to do is grasp it and the location will enter your head."

Sasuke cocked his head before he suddenly vanished, followed by Kakashi, Hinata, and finally Naruto. Lintheion's face went from slightly happy to dead serious as he turned to the death knight next to him and said, "Gather up the strongest in the guild, we're going after Kael'thas the Traitor."

With a quick nod the two returned to the elevators and at that point split off, Lintheion to the Orb of Translocation to transport him to Silvermoon and Hak'Dor to the zeppelin tower outside of the ruins above Undercity to go to Orgrimmar where the guild's main base of operations was.

The guild had several safehouses scattered across Horde territory in both Azeroth and Outland in addition to bases in each of the capital cities. Their main base was in Orgimmar while they had two secondary bases in Thunderbluff and Silvermoon. Lintheion would be gathering members from the guild in Silvermoon to meet up with the other members of the guild in addition to members from other guilds and a few not affiliated with any guilds. By the time that they reached the strength that Lintheion, Hak'Dor, Windhorn, etc were, most members of the Horde that weren't permanently stationed somewhere were part of a guild though a few were "lone wolves" for lack of a better term. While a number of them did work with other members of the Horde on a regular basis extremely well, one in particular delivering a killing blow to the black dragon Onyxia before he succumbed to wounds delivered earlier in the battle, they still preferred to work alone.

Lintheion shook himself from his thoughts as the disorientation from using the Orb of Translocation wore off and swiftly left the room behind the throne room of Silvermoon. Bowing briefly to the Regent Lord Lor'themar Theron of Quel'Thalas, Lintheion walked up to the current leader of the blood elves and asked, "I am sure that you are aware of what Kael'thas the Traitor is planning."

Lor'themar nodded before saying, "You and any others in your guild will meet just outside, others from different guilds have already started to gather. You will all be sent out in the morning."

Lintheion nodded before leaving the Sunfury Spire and heading towards the guild's base in Silvermoon.

Two hours later the group that had gathered to kill Kael'thas once and for all were departing, not bothering to wait for morning.

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Meanwhile, Team Seven of Konoha were happily training. Or rather, Kakashi was happily running them through several rather extreme torture methods disguised as training. For Naruto he had him walking up a waterfall with a boulder strapped to his back while he himself would randomly chuck kunai at him. Sasuke was getting chased by a pack of nindogs for speed training. Hinata on the other hand, was being forced to spar with a clone of Kakashi without using any spells or totems of any kind. They had been doing this ever since they returned to Konoha and the genin were quite frankly exhausted. Seven hours after they started, Kakashi finally called it quits for the day and poofed away with instructions to be at those training grounds the next day at 7:00 AM sharp.

Naruto wearily called out his mount and flopped onto its saddle before it started to trot towards the Sarutobi Estate where Naruto was staying until he could get a new apartment since the building his old apartment was in was burned down. One thing that Naruto was considering was finding someone from the other parts of the Horde and stay with them. Sergra had mentioned to him that there was an entire apartment block that housed nothing but trolls, orcs, tauren, Forsaken, and blood elves. What he might do was get one of those apartments.

The next day, Naruto arrived at the training grounds about five minutes early and started some stretches to loosen up. As he was doing his stretches, Sasuke and Hinata both arrived and started their own stretches. As 7:00 hit, Kakashi appeared in a cloud of smoke before handing each of them a slip of paper and saying, "I have nominated the three of you for the Chuunin Exams starting next week. It is your choice on whether or not to enter, but I will say that don't think about going to people who have already partaken in it since various other members of the Horde have added their own ideas and twists to this year's one.

"The Exam starts on Monday at the Academy in room 301. Until then no group training."

At that point Kakashi poofed away. Team Seven looked at their forms in surprise as the notion finally sunk in that they were eligible for the Chuunin Exams. Most Genin didn't enter until they were a year or two older than them, granted most Chuunin didn't become Chuunin through the exams anyway. The three looked at each other before Sasuke calmly asked, "Fill these out at the Uchiha Complex?"

Hinata and Naruto just nodded and the three swiftly traveled to the Uchiha Complex and got to work on their forms.

"Favored jutsu? What the heck am I supposed to put here?" Naruto asked, well aware that they were referring to genjutsu or ninjutsu.

"Just put down the only jutsu that you have, Kage Bunshin," Hinata responded while jotting down her own response.

"Blood Type, ichor," Sasuke muttered with a chuckle.

"Considering that your body should start to decompose here soon I don't think that that would be a bad response," Naruto responded with a slight smile.

"Parent and/or guardian? I guess I should put down Master Lintheion. I'm not sure if I should put Sylvanas down or not."

"I'd say not."

The three systematically filled out their applications, giving just enough information to satisfy the requirements but not enough to give anyone who found the forms to use against them. The next day the three got together to plan out various strategies for things that they might need. Given that they had no idea what would face them, they made plans for every situation that they could think of. Naruto popped into a rather large training ground one day and came out with enough food to last them for a week if they were to carefully ration it. Hinata purchased various herbs and such for some potions that she was learning to make. Sasuke obtained several poisons to coat their weapons with, some which worked if it simply touched the skin.

The following Monday, Team Seven arrived at the Academy and decided to enter the Academy in a different manner. Glad that Windhorn had taught her that new potion, Hinata gave Naruto and Sasuke an invisibility potion and, after they drunk them down, entered the room that the Exam was taking place in through one of the open windows. They were the first ones in the room (since they were there three hours early) and started to set up various remote traps that would activate remotely and not otherwise. Naruto's old pranking days came in handy.

The first team to come in (after Team Seven of course) was a team from Suna that consisted of a redhead, a blonde with a battle fan on her back, and a batman wanna-be with makeup on. Team Seven's eyes narrowed when they recognized the last one as one who had been bullying the Hokage's grandson two days before. Naruto had cowed the nin by freezing the joints of his battle puppet without even blinking.

Then the redhead had appeared in a swirl of sand. One thing that Naruto quickly notices was that the gourde on the redhead's back was saturated with a demonic energy. Not quite mana but not quite chakra either and it possessed the same foul feel that Naruto felt whenever a warlock was summoning a demon around him. That immediately put him on Naruto's "avoid at all costs" radar.

Naruto suspected that the boy was like himself, and contained a demon. While Naruto's demon was not really a demon and simply an incredibly powerful animal Naruto thought that the Suna genin had an actual demon within him. Naruto had informed both of his teammates of his ideas about the Suna genin and they had also purchased anti-demon seals in the time that that they had.

Over the next hour, more and more teams arrived in the room until there were enough that Team Seven felt comfortable releasing the effects of the invisibility potions. All potions were made to have a built in "off switch" that could be mentally flipped before the potion wore off. However once that was done the effects of the potion were gone and another had to be drunk.

Ten minutes after they deactivated their invisibility potions, Team Seven moved closer to the entrance and shook their heads in amusement upon seeing six others from the Academy. Teams Eight and Ten had also apparently been nominated for the Chuunin Exams. As they walked up, a loudmouth by the name of Kiba noticed them and called out, "Hey Naruto, Hinata, Sasuke over here!"

"SASUKE-KUN!!" a twin pair of voices shouted before two human missiles shot at the Forsaken genin.

Sasuke adopted a new tactic that Naruto had thought of the other day. He jumped up onto the ceiling and clung to it with chakra. The two missiles (by the names of Sakura and Ino) crashed into the floor a few feet behind where Sasuke had been standing in a rather, interesting position. Sakura was on the bottom with her legs splayed out and Ino was on top of her in between Sakura's legs. A flash of a camera was enough to get them standing up and glaring at each other.

Naruto shook his head in amusement as he sealed the camera into a special crystal that could only be unsealed with his blood laced with both his chakra and ice mana. It was at that point that an older genin with glasses walked up to the group and said, "You know, you should keep it down. Some of the others here have short tempers."

"If a small group of shinobi are enough to cause one to lose their temper they shouldn't be here. Besides if they really belonged here than they wouldn't bother worrying about us," Naruto calmly said as Sasuke came down from the ceiling next to him.

"Well, yes there is that, but even so you should watch yourselves. This is my seventh time taking these exams and let me tell you they are not easy. There are some benefits though," at this point the genin pulled out a deck of cards, "these are my ninja-information cards, ninfo for short. They react with my chakra and contain information about just about everybody in these Exams."

"Can we see the cards on Team Seven of Konoha?" Naruto asked.

The teen nodded before taking three cards out and pumping his chakra into them, and were swiftly taken away. Sasuke quickly found that the card on him had nothing on him being undead. Hinata had nothing on her shaman abilities. Naruto's however, had information on the Kyuubi that he couldn't allow to be announced. With a burst of flame, the card was destroyed. Hinata and Sasuke, seeing the logic, destroyed their own cards. With a smirk, Team Seven turned around and walked towards the desks just as there was a cloud of smoke and a deep, guttural voice spoke through the smoke cloud, "Take a seat. The First stage of the Chuunin Exams has begun."

ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ

Meanwhile, the jounin senseis were required to wait in a lounge room to be sure that they didn't do anything to help their students. In addition there were a few people from other branches of the Horde present as well for a ten minute break.

One of them, a battle scarred orc in plate armor, looked over to the senseis of the "rookies" and said, "You have your genin in the Chuunin Exams right?"

Kakashi looked up from his book and asked, "Yes, what of it?"

The orc gave a savage grin and answered, "I hear that they somehow called an old friend of the Warchief's to proctor the first exam. I admit to being curious about how your Hokage managed to convince _Rexxar_ to stop in a place for a longer than a week."

Kurenai froze upon hearing that the first proctor of the Chuunin Exam was Rexxar. The other two senseis didn't recognize the name and Kakashi asked, "Who is Rexxar?"

"Rexxar is one of the Mok'Nathal Clan. A clan known for having a large number of members who are half orc and half ogre. Rexxar in particular has been granted the title of Champion of the Horde and almost singlehandedly stormed Theramore and killed Admiral Daelin Proudmoore. Consider ourselves fortunate that our students don't have to fight him otherwise none of them would have a chance of beating him," Kurenai explained.

With the students, Naruto paled when he recognized who their proctor would be.

"There will be no fighting of any kind in this part of the exam unless I say so. This part will be a written test to see how much you know. Normally the written test would be about various aspects of your career within the Elemental Nations, but this year the Horde is in charge of the Exam. You start out with ten points, one point for each question. Any cheating costs you two points. You need five points to pass. If any member of your team fails, the entire team fails. You have one hour to finish, once you get your test you may begin," Rexxar growled out the entire speech, sufficiently cowing all of the genin present.

Naruto upon hearing what the test would be about relaxed. Out of all of the genin here he probably had the best chance at passing. That year abroad would come in handy. However upon receiving his test, he paled. The test was written in kanji, Orc script, Thallasian, and a little bit of the pictographic alphabet that Tauren used. Five of the questions were written in kanji, to make passing even possible for the majority, two in Thallasian, two in the Orc script, Naruto never did learn the name of it, and the last question was written in Tauren.

"One last rule, all questions must be answered in the language that they are written in," Rexxar remarked with a grin.

Naruto immediately looked at his test and quickly figured out the questions in Thallasian and Orc. Those two languages he knew enough that he could actually answer. The ones in Thallasian were about the homeland of the blood elves and the attack by the Scourge while the ones in Orc were about the time when they still lived in Draenor. Naruto had more difficulty on the Orc questions because his vocabulary wasn't as large as his Thallasian was and he didn't know as much about that time. The questions that were in kanji were for the most part, geographical questions. The name of the orc kingdom, where Undercity was located, blah, blah, blah. However he didn't know how to read the written version of Tauren so he had to leave that answer alone.

The rest of his team was doing well too. Their team was the one that had the most contact with those from outside the Elemental Nations, especially since they had actually been outside it. For the ones written in the different languages, Sasuke and Hinata used their doujutsu to either copy or find the correct answers. They were the only team that actually finished what they could before half or the hour was up. The non-Konoha teams were for the most part doing surprisingly well.

Konoha and its ninja teams naturally had the most information on the lands outside of the Elemental Nations but the stuff that was being asked wasn't kept secret. It was all information that the enemies of the Horde already knew about and would have to have lived under a rock not to know about. A number of teams were caught cheating and when someone was caught cheating twice they were kicked out of the exam room since there was no way that they would pass.

After the hour was up a female troll in mage robes collected the tests and passed them to an orcess in what shinobi normally dress in. A quick handseal that the members of Team Seven recognized as for the Kage Bunshin resulted in there being a total of ten orcs who split up the papers and swiftly graded the questions in Orc before passing them to a group of tauren who graded the question in their written language. After the tauren was a group of blood elves in various kinds of armor to grade their own set of questions. Then a group of shinobi graded the final five questions. The tests were divided into two piles and each proctor present took a paper from one pile.

"Now before we reveal who passed and who didn't, there will be a final…twist. If you don't perform adequately, then you and your team will fail. You will have to fight me individually," Rexxar said with a grin.

"You may choose to not face me in combat, but if you do then you and your entire team will be failed. Should you choose to face me, well, I may not be able to stop my axes in time for you to keep your head attached to your neck. You have five minutes to decide," Rexxar said while pulling his axes from his belt.

Naruto paled. He knew that there was no way any of the genin stood a chance against Rexxar. Especially if his companion bear, Misha, became involved in the fight. He also wasn't sure if Rexxar would follow through with his threat. This was the first time that Naruto had ever met him and all that Naruto knew about him was his skill in battle, nothing about his personality. This was the hardest decision that he had ever faced. As the five minutes drew near, and more teams quit, Naruto stood up.

With a calm voice Naruto said, "I am sorry Sasuke, Hinata, but I am not going to risk losing either of you because of an exam. I'm out."

The looks in Sasuke's and Hinata's faces showed that they understood his reasoning, though Sasuke's showed more confusion than understanding. Most likely since Sasuke knew less about Rexxar than Naruto and Hinata did. As the three left the room, they joined the others that had left the exam at the point that they did.

"Not that I'm ungrateful for you trying to keep us alive, but do you really think that that guy would have killed any of us?" Sasuke asked as he turned to Naruto.

"That's just it, I don't know. I've never seen him before today, only heard the fireside stories about him. I do know that he could face the Old Man and possibly another Kage at the same time and win," Naruto responded.

"What makes you so sure about that?" Hinata asked.

"Master Lintheion told me that he met Rexxar in Outland once."

Hinata and Sasuke understood immediately. The only places that they knew for sure that no shinobi could survive as things were were Outland and Northrend. From some rumors that they had heard of Outland in particular even the Hokage wouldn't last very long if he went there. The three then ended their conversation as the orcess that had performed the kage bunshin earlier walked in and started to list various teams that could leave. Surprisingly, only three teams left at that point and the orcess smiled before saying, "Congratulations on passing the first part of the Chuunin Exam."

Obviously this was met with some confusion which she started to explain away, "Some of you knew already that Rexxar would be able to kill everyone in the room if he wanted to. For various reasons you backed out of a fight that you knew that you had no chance of winning. Some would call that a show of cowardice when in actuality it is a show of intelligence. There will be times when you will be faced with odds that will be impossible for you to overcome. Not all of those times will you get the option to back out, but at times it is best to retreat and live to fight another day."

Naruto then understood the reasoning, but then Kiba had another question, "Then what were the questions for?"

"To see if you had paid attention to the world outside of the Elemental Countries. A few phony genin were placed in the room to answer the questions that almost no one would be able to answer. The questions themselves were simple if you hadn't been ignoring information that the Horde brought with them and dispersed on their travels through the Elemental Countries."

It was at that point that another orc came in and looked at the remaining teams before saying, "Ten teams left, not bad but I'll do even worse to them."

Naruto gulped upon hearing that, this exam was turning out to be a lot harder than he was expecting. Were they sure that this wasn't the Jounin Exams? A troll that the group passed in priestess clothing looked at Naruto with an amused smile; apparently she picked that thought up. Naruto placed his thoughts on hold as the orc turned around and faced the group. Two groups of blood elves, one in front and one in back of the group, in mage robes started to lay large crystals down on the ground as the orc began to explain the second portion of the Chuunin Exams.

"You will all be randomly transported to somewhere in the desert land known as the Barrens. There you and your team will have three weeks to make your way to the Horde base called the Crossroads. Each team will be given a self-expanding map. These maps will only show places that you have been to and will also show where on that map you are. I should also warn you, those at the Crossroads have been tasked with preventing you from reaching Crossroads. Some of you will not survive the temperatures, some will be killed by the wildlife, and a few may be killed by those preventing you from your goal. In order to pass you must reach the inn at Crossroads within three weeks. Once you have spoken with the innkeeper you will not be hassled as you are transported back here to Konoha," the orc said as one of the blood elves started to hand out rolls of parchment to the various teams, skipping Team Seven since they already had one (Naruto had picked it up his first time in Crossroads).

"The Second Stage of the Chuunin Exam beings…now."

The blood elf mages slammed staves onto the ground and the crystals that they laid down earlier flew up and flashed a green light before each of the teams found themselves separated from each other in the Barrens. Fortunately, each team had all of its members together.

Naruto pulled out his map and quickly determined that they were a mile north of Crossroads. He looked at his teammates as he put his map away and said, "Okay there are several ways that we can do this. One way is the brute force method, me summon an army of kage bunshins and start attacking. Another way is to henge ourselves and hope that that works, unlikely. Another way is to ambush single Horde troops leaving the inn and take their hearthstones. Those are the best methods that I can think of."

"Why don't we just sneak past the guards during the night?" Sasuke asked.

"Well for one thing orc eyesight is better at night."

"Perhaps we should do some more scouting of the security before we make a decision," Hinata suggested.

Both boys nodded in agreement before making their way south towards the Crossroads. Hinata activated her Byakugan to make sure that no one snuck up on them. Despite that fact, all members of Team Seven had all of their senses strained to the limit just as if Hinata's Byakugan wasn't active. While the Byakugan was an effective tool, its reputation as an 'All Seeing Eye' wasn't entirely true. Hinata had confided in her teammates that there were weaknesses to it. For one their eyes didn't see in 360 degrees like was commonly believed due to there being a slight blind spot directly behind their head no more than a single degree in length. Another weakness was that when rouges were stealthed and druids, while in a feline form, were prowling didn't automatically become visible. When the user of a Byakugan had it active a stealthed rouge and a prowling druid only appeared half there and hard to make out. When the actual eyes weren't looking at the druid or rouge, as a normal person would be looking at them, it was even harder to see them.

Two minutes later, Team Seven was looking at the guards at the northernmost entrance to the Crossroads. Sasuke volunteered to do some distanced scouting around the wall. When he returned five minutes later, he whispered, "There are two guards at every entrance and even more further in. I can't think of how we'll get past them."

"I have an idea," Hinata said before whispering her plan to her teammates.

"That's your idea?" Sasuke asked with an incredulous expression on his face.

"That's crazy! So crazy," Naruto started with a smirk.

"It just might work," Sasuke finished with a matching smirk.

Using a henge in an unusual manner (to make themselves look like the air), the three swiftly moved towards the wall to the Crossroads behind where the inn was. Sasuke pulled out a kunai and swiftly cut a hole in the hide wall and the three hopped through. Naruto then reaching into a pouch and pulled out a stick of dynamite with a long fuse and lit it with some fire mana before tossing it outside the hole. The three then dashed to the inn wall and cut their way in just as they did with the wall. Once the three were in there was a loud bang as the stick of dynamite went off.

Dispersing their henges, Hinata and Sasuke turned towards Naruto with questioning expressions on their faces. Naruto smirked and answered the unasked question, "We don't want to make things _too_ easy on the other teams now do we?"

"I am surprised to see a team here already, I wasn't expecting one for at least another day," the innkeeper spoke up, catching the attention of Team Seven.

"So we made it past the second portion of the Exam?"

"Yes and now you get to go back to Konoha."

"Don't worry, we've still got out hearthstones," Sasuke said while pulling his own out and hearthing back to Konoha, followed by Naruto and Hinata.

ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ ﯓ ﯗ ﯕ ﮚ

For the rest of the three weeks, Team Seven rested and did light training. Enough to keep themselves from losing an edge but at the same time not enough to give anything away to any enemy teams. Upon the end of the three weeks, all the teams that passed (totaling seven) met in a tower inside of a training ground that was nicknamed the Forest of Death. It was at that point that they were told what the next portion of the Chuunin Exam would be.

"In one month you will fight each other individually in front of the leaders of each country. However, there are too many contestants. To weed the weaker ones out we will be having a preliminary match. From here on out, nothing that you do will affect the rest of your team. Should you wish to leave now you may," a tauren in plate armor explained to the twenty one genin. No one spoke up.

"Very well then, since there is an odd number one person will fight twice. If that person wins only one of their matches they will still pass. The first match will be randomly determined and displayed on this board."

A large electronic board rose up behind a stone statue of two hands in the traditional chakra gathering seal. The names of all genin present flashed across the board before landing on…


	7. Preliminaries and Prejudice

AN: Here's the next chapter, and a word of warning (well two words of warning) about the story from this point that unexpectedly occurred due to the fact that I basically let the story write itself:

1. A cannon character will die in this chapter; I didn't plan it that way that's just how the story flowed out onto the keyboard.

2. Jiraiya will be a prejudice asshole in this; that also wasn't intended but just how the story flowed.

Last Time:

_"Very well then, since there is an odd number one person will fight twice. If that person wins only one of their matches they will still pass. The first match will be randomly determined and displayed on this board."_

_A large electronic board rose up behind a stone statue of two hands in the traditional chakra gathering seal. The names of all genin present flashed across the board before landing on… _

Now:

"Would all except Uchiha Sasuke and Hyuuga Neji ascend to the balconies while these two fight?" the tauren proctor "asked" in a tone that brooked no argument.

"This will be an interesting match Kakashi-san. Last year's rookie of the year against this year's rookie of the year. Byakugan against Sharingan. However Neji-kun's flames of youth will be enough to win the match for him!" a jounin in green spandex, apparently the Hyuuga's sensei, shouted.

"Hmm, you say something Gai?" Kakashi responded while putting his porn away.

"Curse you and your hip attitude Kakashi!"

"I mean no offense, Gai was it? Anyway, I think that your student is in for something that he won't be prepared to face with Sasuke," Naruto said as the proctor began the match.

"And just what is it that you think that my rival is unprepared to face?" a mini-me of Neji's sensei asked.

Naruto looked at the clone through the corner of his eye and responded, "Someone who even with all of his tenketsu sealed will still be able to fight in addition to will not slow upon having their insides turned to scrambled eggs."

Gai's clone's and Gai's eyes widened upon hearing that while looking at Kakahsi to see if Naruto was bluffing. Kakashi just shook his head to show that Naruto was telling the truth. One thing that they had discovered was that the Plague seemed to work around chakra (which made sense because chakra allowed undead to function without certain body parts, like eyes or a lower jaw) and having training in chakra made the Plague stronger. In this case it simply made Sasuke harder to kill than any other Forsaken minus Zabuza.

Neji was noticing this as every strike towards Sasuke's organs weren't affecting him. It was with immense frustration that he did something that he would never have normally done, he diverted from Jyuuken. Using the little bit of Goken that he knew, Neji delivered a kick to Sasuke's face with enough force to both break his neck and turn it one hundred eighty degrees.

The force was also enough to send Sasuke to the floor, where he decided to play around with his opponent. He acted like the broken neck killed him when in actuality it only made everything look weird.

"He was fated to lose. You may call the match now," Neji said as he started to walk away.

"Hey Sasuke, quit playing dead and kick that asshole's ass!" Naruto shouted down into the arena.

"Naruto-kun, I'm sorry but only one of the Forsaken could have survived that," Gai said, thinking that Naruto wasn't realizing that his teammate was dead.

"I'm well aware of that, Neji didn't kill Sasuke because he's already dead."

"Go and ruin my fun dobe," Sasuke called out as he stood back up to where is face was looking behind him and the back of his duck ass hairstyle was pointing in the same direction as his chest.

Sasuke grabbed the sides of his head and with sounds that are too disturbing to describe turned it around so that he was looking forwards. Obviously, a number of the shinobi were freaked out when an orc rouge near the genin turned to Kakashi and asked, "When did he contract the Plague?"

"On our mission to Wave Country. The client had lied about the difficulty and who was after him. It turns out that the Scourge attempted to gain a foothold there. The tycoon in charge of everything there and all of his forces ate grain that had been infected. Fortunately we had backup and the people of Wave Country decided to fight back. There were a few casualties and Sasuke was bitten by our client who had drunken infected sake. Out of all the forces that the tycoon employed only one became a Forsaken along with Sasuke," Kakashi responded.

Hearing what Kakashi was saying, Neji started to sweat. The Jyuuken was less effective against the Forsaken then it was the living. And even if he did seal away all of Sasuke's tenketsu he would still be able to fight. In addition one orc had asked a question that practically shattered the view of the Jyuuken being enough: if the tenketsu only allowed chakra to be moved _out_ of the body, then what stopped it from being used _inside_ the body? The fact was that no one had really thought about that, or if they did they didn't discuss it.

It was at that point Sasuke activated his own doujutsu, the Sharingan, and charged. Drawing a kunai as he charged, Sasuke flashed through a few one handed hand seals (something that he had been experimenting with ever since he saw Haku do the same thing) and blew out a few fireballs at Neji. Sasuke had a plan to deal with Neji, but he had to be careful with it. One of the advantages of Jyuuken was that each strike used only a little chakra, less than an illusionary bunshin took. Sasuke had to find a way to get Neji to use more chakra. Otherwise the match would go on forever.

As Neji dodged the fireballs with a bit of a flourish to show off, Sasuke reached into a pouch and pulled out a vial with a green fluid in it. At the same time he pulled out a dagger that had been a gift to him around a year ago. Sasuke popped the cork off the vial and jammed the vial into a space in the handle of the dagger before sealing the dagger shut. Drawing another dagger, this one being one that he himself bought off of a troll that was one of the first to come to Konoha, Sasuke charged at Neji with one dagger in each hand. The dagger that had the vial within it started to leak the green fluid in slight amounts while the other glowed flame red and left a trail of fire.

Naruto raised an eyebrow upon recognizing the way that Sasuke was moving.

"Since when did Sasuke get training from a rouge?" Naruto asked out loud.

Hinata chuckled before stating, "You do realize that with Sasuke having training as a rouge makes it so that our team is the least shinobi-like of Konoha. You're more of a mage than a shinobi, I'm more of a shaman than a kunoichi, and Sasuke from the looks of it is half shinobi and half rouge."

"What was in that vial that Uchiha-san placed within his dagger?" the kunoichi on Neji's team asked.

"Odds are some kind of poison, what kind I have no idea. I'm not good with most poisons. Pure magical ones I know a bit about, but none of those have a liquid form," Naruto answered the girl's question.

Sasuke meanwhile, was slashing at Neji with both daggers. Neji knew enough to know that the odds were that the non-glowing and dripping dagger was the more dangerous one and took great care to avoid it over the fire enchanted dagger.

Then Sasuke did something that caught Neji off guard, Sasuke opened his mouth as wide as he could and leaned forward as if to take a bite out of him. Sasuke's plan was for Neji to panic so that he could slash him with his poisoned dagger. Instead Neji did something that no one expected; he started to spin on his heel and with a shout of "KAITEN!" turned into a spinning dome of chakra.

Sasuke was sent flying to the side and in his surprise lost his grip on his daggers which were sent in different directions. Sasuke's surprise didn't last long, and after a moment of examining the still spinning dome, he flashed through a few handseals and let loose with one of his favorite fire jutsus: "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"

Neji had started to slow down, but upon hearing that Sasuke was starting up a jutsu that large sped back up. Then he realized his mistake, the spinning kept the fire out, but also created a tornado within the fireball that increased the heat and thus, started to cook Neji. Sweating profusely, in part due to the heat and in part due to realizing that he was running low on chakra, Neji called out over the roar of the fireball, "I FORFIT!"

Upon hearing that, Sasuke cut off his fireball and retrieved his daggers before heading back up to the balcony with his teammates. Naruto nodded to Sasuke before glancing back at the proctor waiting for the next pair of genin to fight.

"The next match will be between Windrunner-Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura. Would the two come down to the fighting arena," the proctor said in the same tone that made it so that no one would argue with.

Naruto descended to the arena after accepting the good lucks from his teammates. Naruto was not entirely sure what to expect from Sakura. When he had left with Master Lintheion he had a crush on Sakura and therefore didn't feel that he could judge from those memories and he hadn't seen her since the day that the teams were assigned. Considering that her sensei was one that was known as the Genjutsu Mistress, it was a safe assumption that she had plenty of genjutsu to use. That didn't worry Naruto. He may not have the same mental abilities as a priest, but mages as a whole were second only to priests and warlocks at throwing off harmful mental powers used against them.

"Begin," the proctor called out.

Sakura flashed through a few hand seals and whispered the name of her genjutsu under her breath low enough that Naruto couldn't hear it. Naruto smirked and started to charge up a frost spell when he heard something burst out of the ground behind him. Jumping to the side so that he wouldn't lose sight of Sakura, Naruto turned to see an undead pulling itself out of the ground. Naruto's eyes narrowed; this was either a genjutsu or Sakura learned necromancy, and he wasn't willing to risk the second option.

Finishing gathering the energy needed for his spell, Naruto held his hand up and whispered, "Blizzard."

The shards of ice slammed into the numerous undead pulling themselves out of the arena floor. However Naruto's eyes narrowed when he saw more undead pull themselves out of the ground than were destroyed. With a growl, Naruto sent a Frostbolt at Sakura, if this was a genjutsu odds were that in order to be of this magnitude it would be disrupted if Sakura had to break her concentration. When she dodged, Naruto began to think that perhaps it wasn't a genjutsu.

"How did you learn necromancy Sakura?" Naruto asked, to which his only answer was a dark smirk.

Naruto sighed before flying backward as he was tackled. The crowd gasped as the ghoul on Naruto bit down on his shoulder. Unnoticed to anyone, Lintheion chuckled. As the proctor prepared to call the match, Naruto started to laugh.

"Nice trick Sakura. Creating images that had sound, touch, and smell. That would fool almost anyone. Except there was one thing that you weren't able to take into account: I've already felt what the Plague is like!" Naruto called out while standing up, ignoring the now weightless ghoul on him.

"What is Naruto talking about?" Kiba asked in confusion.

"When Master Lintheion and I were in the Ghostlands I was bitten by a ghoul. I then did something that was thought to be impossible, I completely resisted the Plague. All those years ago when the Kyuubi attacked the village he didn't die but was instead sealed into an infant. While I was traveling Kalimdor and Lordaeron Master Lintheion and I discovered that the Kyuubi's 'chakra' was actually the same Rage that warriors of the Horde and Alliance use. The Kyuubi however uses his Rage completely differently than warriors do. Apparently the fox didn't like the thought of his host being undead and somehow burned the Plague out of my system.

"Your mistake Sakura was assuming that the Plague didn't cause the victim to feel anything, and now that I've caught onto your trick, you're going down."

Naruto then formed a cross seal and whispered, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

The first time that Naruto used this jutsu he created a sea of blondes. Now he had enough control that he only filled the majority of the arena, which was still a huge improvement. Assuming that they were simple illusionary clones, Sakura glanced around while dismissing the majority of the clones. She tensed her body when all began to charge up the Arcane Missiles spell. Simply thinking that only one was real, she dodged the first batch and, thinking that the rest were illusions, was hit with about fifty missiles. Fortunately for her, Naruto toned down the strength of the missiles so she wasn't killed. Despite that, she would still be in the hospital for several days at the very least, most likely a few weeks.

"Winner: Windrunner-Uzumaki Naruto," the proctor declared as Naruto ascended the stairs and Sakura was taken away by medic-nin and a troll priest.

The names of the screen flashed through names again before stopping on two once again.

"Hyuuga Hinata and Inuzuka Kiba please come down to the field."

Hinata raised an eyebrow at her opponent before shrugging and doing so. Odds were from the way that he was acting he was assuming that because she was a girl he would automatically win. She would have to be cautious about the rifle on his back though, with the way that the younger generation had been infusing with the Horde since their arrival a year ago, it was possible that he had some hunter training.

"This will be a piece of cake Akamaru! Not only is she a girl, but she's a shammie to boot!" Kiba shouted, not noticing the winces in the crowd.

"Begin!" the proctor called out, just before bolts of electricity and fireballs from a totem slammed into Kiba.

Hinata was quite frankly pissed off at Kiba's words, both about her being a girl and his slur on shamans. Had Droga never shown up she probably would have tried to ignore Kiba's words, but some of Droga rubbed off on her. And one thing that everyone who knew her would say about Droga, insult her or shamans in anyway and you had better pray that she killed you fast. Needless to say Kiba was lucky that Hinata left him relatively unharmed. Kiba was _un_lucky that one of Hinata's fire totems seared his Kiba Jr. nearly beyond recognition.

"Winner: Hyuuga Hinata."

The remaining matches were for the most part, unexciting with the exception of the match between Lee and Gaara.

The match started out with Lee pressing a few spots on his spandex before there was a poof of smoke followed by Lee running at Gaara with what us fantasy geeks call a HFPOM (Huge Fucking Piece Of Metal) in the shape of a two-handed sword with various runes running down the side. Lee then shouted: "Dig agh nagri: Fatofsan Flak! (1)"

The sword then seemed to both burst into flame and emit freezing cold at the same time The two swirled together without mixing just as Lee slammed it into Gaara's shield. To the surprise of everyone from Suna, the blade cut through the shield like butter, causing Gaara to half-panic and move as fast as he could to get out of the way. He was half successful: instead of getting decapitated, he received a long cut along his forehead that began to bleed metaphorical rivers of blood. Gaara, having never been wounded before, paused and wiped at the blood on his forehead and whispered, "What is this sensation? Am I bleeding? My blood, MY BLOOD!"

Lee, recognizing that if this went on he wouldn't have another chance, reversed his swing to bring it back around while Gaara was distracted and confused. Gaara's distraction at the shock of being wounded cost him – his life. Lee's blade once again sliced through the sand like butter and this time Gaara was too distracted as the blade severed his head from his neck.

Lee leapt back and placed the tip of his sword into the ground and kneeled before bowing his head and whispering, "May your soul find peace and glory with the ancestors," before standing up and resealing his sword. The Suna shinobi were in shock. Gaara had been _killed_? By a genin who according to their information couldn't use chakra? Perhaps they should stay out of Orochimaru's invasion if the greatest weapon of Suna was _slain_ by someone who couldn't even use chakra.

Naruto had been selected to go against Ino, but she forfeited as soon as she saw who her opponent was. Anyone would could survive the bite-transferred Plague wasn't someone who she wanted to fight.

After the final match all those who passed went down to the arena and took a slip of paper out of a helmet to determine who would be facing who:

**Naruto vs Shino**

**Lee vs Temari**

**Hinata vs Tenten  
**

**Sasuke vs Kabuto**

**Kankuro vs Shikamaru**

All of the genin were told that the final matches would begin in four weeks and they were to use that time to train for their opponents. Before leaving, Naruto walked over to Lee and asked, "I'm curious how your sword was able to cut through that sand shield. From my guess it would be enough to stop nearly anything if the shield got in front of it."

Lee gave a slight smile before responding, "The answer involves one word: physics. The cold first freezes the sand before the heat heats it back up melting the sand, but not enough to truly be noticeable. I am also interested in your combining shinobi jutsus and your magecraft. I look forward to us fighting in a month's time."

Naruto returned the nod before he turned away to go. His hearthstone was fully charged but it was considered rude to hearth away in the middle of an arena. Before leaving the arena, Naruto turned and saw Lee talking to a man who looked like an older version of him and an orc in heavy plate armor. Naruto resisted the urge to sweatdrop, was every genin in Konoha getting training from members of the Horde?

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Later that day Naruto was taking a break at the hot springs along with the rest of Team Seven. Naruto and Sasuke were on the men's side while Hinata was on the women's side. Naruto glanced at Sasuke before noticing something on the Forsaken shinobi's shoulder.

"You're rotting," Naruto bluntly stated while pointing to the part of Sasuke's shoulder where there was a patch of skin starting to flake off.

Sasuke looked at the spot and reached up before tearing the flap of skin off, showing the discolored muscle underneath and remarking, "So I am."

"Some of the Forsaken that I've talked to mentioned that once becoming undead they were no longer bothered by the thought of their bodies rotting. Apparently that's true with you as well."

"Yup, the bright side is that once my jaw falls off I won't have fangirls chasing after me anymore."

Naruto dramatically placed a hand on his chest and half-shouted, "Hell must be freezing over, the one and only Uchiha Sasuke made a joke!"

"Hey you two keep it down, I'm trying to research!" an older voice whispered to them from the fence dividing the men and women sides of the hot springs.

Both boys froze and glanced over at the older man who appeared to be looking through a hole in the wall while writing on a notebook. Knowing that their teammate was by now in the hot spring, both of the genin were understandably pissed off. Naruto charged up a small amount of fire mana and sent it to the man's notebook while Sasuke got out and charged at the man. The man glanced at Sasuke before there was a cloud of smoke and a large tongue shot out and slammed into Sasuke, pinning him to the wall of the building where the men changed.

The smoke cleared to show a large toad and the man crying over the ashes of his notebook. The toad said around its tongue, "Jiraiya, there's something funny about the way this boy tastes. Tastes almost like a two month old body."

"Hey Sasuke, I wonder if toad summons can contract _The Plague_," Naruto remarked with a smirk as he got out of the spring, causing both the man and the toad to freeze while Sasuke adopted an evil grin on his face. Leaning forward, Sasuke opened his mouth wide and swiftly bit down on the tongue holding him in place. The toad shrieked in terror before disappearing back to the summon realm with the old man suddenly appearing next to Sasuke and examining him.

"A little gray-skinned, slightly glowing eyes, muscle showing at one spot, yup you are undead alright," the man declared before wincing as Sasuke's foot met the man's groin.

"Only one person alive summons toads and I have to admit that I'm underwhelmed. Jiraiya of the Sannin bested by a genin, and peaking on women to boot. Normally I would just send you over to the women's side so they could beat the crap out of you. But since our teammate was over there," here Naruto cracked his knuckles and whistling a specific pattern.

Sasuke reached down to Jiraiya's neck and pressed a pressure point that sent the pervert into la-la land. Meanwhile on the women's side Hinata heard Naruto's whistle and recognized the Horde code that translated to: _'Hinata, meet Sasuke and I at the bell training grounds.'_

That basically meant for her to meet the boys at the training ground where they tortured Kakashi the day that they became genin. She got out of the hot spring and went into the women's side of the building and got dressed before heading over to the training grounds. When she got there both Naruto and Sasuke were glaring at an old man with long spiky white hair with his feet and hands tied together along with his fingers, indicating that he was a shinobi. In addition there were two scraps of paper on hisarms that were a combination of Horde seals and shinobi seals. The Horde had seals that blocked mages and the like from mana, and by combining those seals with shinobi seals they developed an equivalent for chakra.

"Okay so what did the old man do?" Hinata asked as she walked up to the boys.

"He was peeking on the women in the hot spring," both boys said at the same time, causing a fire to light up in Hinata's eyes.

"So what shall we do with the pervert?" Hinata sweetly asked.

"I'll have you know that I'm not a pervert! I'm a Super Pervert!" Jiraiya proudly declared.

"Interrogation tactic #9?" Naruto calmly asked the other two.

"Which one is that?" Sasuke asked in an eager manner that caused Jiraiya to start to sweat.

"Wasn't that the one that Ibiki guy asked if he could use and called it a stroke of genius?" Hinata sweetly questioned.

"Yup!" Naruto answered before finishing the polymorph spell that he had been charging.

With a poof of smoke Jiraiya was turned into a sheep by the mage/genin before being stuffed into a sack and taken off into the forests surrounding Konoha. Throughout the night people of Konoha could hear the screams of pain of both sheep and man. Ibiki and Anko were weeping at the beauty of the screams; they could tell that anyone subject to whatever the poor soul was being subject to would confess any and all secrets that they knew.

The next day, a severely bruised, burned, frostbitten, electrocuted, cut, and, most of all, pissed Jiraiya was in front of his sensei's desk demanding: "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THOSE KIDS? THEY TORTURED ME LIKE IT WAS SOMETHING THAT THEY DID EVERYDAY! AND WHO TAUGHT THEM THE METHODS THAT THEY USED?"

"Nothing they just hate perverts, they don't, and no one," the Sandiame answered in order of the questions.

"And who developed those jutsu that the blonde and the Hyuuga used? I didn't recognize them and they must not use very much chakra for me to not feel them using it."

The Sandiame's eyes narrowed slightly as he answered, "They weren't jutsus. Naruto is mostly a mage while Hyuuga Hinata is more of a shaman."

"What? How's that possible? There's no way that anyone from the Horde could stand up to a shinobi so why are they learning from them?"

At this point the Sandiame was narrowing his eyes even further at the apparent prejudice of his student and growled out, "Despite the fact that they do not use chakra they are not inferior to us. There are plenty of them that have defeated our shinobi and those of other villages before."

"Bah, the other villages must not have been prepared for them to fight differently and I'm sure that those of our village didn't want them to be totally humiliated. There is no way that even their leaders could stand against you or I if we wanted to get rid of them."

"Jiraiya, for your sake I hope that you snap out of your prejudice soon. Nearly every member of the Horde here not of a shinobi has been to a place where I would die within the first ten yards of entering."

"Oh stop being modest, there isn't any way that any of them could stand against a Konoha shinobi…" Jiraiya paused upon seeing his sensei shaking with rage.

"Get. Out. NOW!" Sarutobi shouted in rage, forcing chakra and killing intent into his voice.

Needless to say Jiraiya got out of there. Sarutobi sighed before glancing up and asking, "How long have you been there?"

The hidden ANBU blinked before Irertne stepped out of the shadows with the closest he could get to a grin (missing a lower jaw remember) as he answered, _"I was here before he was. I must say that I expected more from him."_

"How many times could you have killed him?"

_"Since he walked in…about 58 times in painful ways and at least a hundred in painless ways counting all of my poisons. For claiming to be so good he sure did suck at detection."_

"Don't forget that rouges hide in different ways than shinobi are used to looking for. I'm sure that the only reason that I noticed you was because you wanted me to."

_"You are right. That prejudice asshole of a student of yours could use some humiliation. Perhaps cutting his belt strap as he's hopping across roofs. No too mundane. Or,"_ at this point Irertne started to mutter to himself, thinking of "pranks" to play on Jiraiya.

"While some of those would be amusing, I didn't ask for your aid for that reason."

_"Right sorry, what is it that you need?"_

"Orochimaru will probably attack during the finals of the Chuunin Exam. I would like you and a few others that you would be willing to trust with this to try to find any weaknesses in Konoha's fortifications. Upon your completion find someone else that you trust to find ways to fix them and ask for their aid. I will give you permission to improve our defenses in any way that you can."

_"Understood. I will start immediately and leave the pervert's punishment for afterwards."_

At that point Irertne vanished, causing the Hokage to sigh and the ANBU to look around to try to find out where the rouge went. Sarutobi knew that the ANBU wouldn't find him, rouges were better at sneaking and the like than shinobi were due to the fact that they were more specialized than shinobi. Shinobi were basically a combination of hunters, priests (medic nins anyway), and mages that used a different source of power than all three. The last fact was the reason that shinobi couldn't sense the chakra of the other members of the Horde (it was still hard to think of Konoha as part of the Horde since it was a stronger and closer alliance than any sinobi village had in the past and as the saying goes: old habits die hard), without training the other members of the Horde had almost no chakra. Even civilians had more chakra than Rexxar had. Though part of that may have had something to do with the fact that the people of the Elemental Countries had practically been bred to have larger chakra coils while the other races had never even touched it. They never used it so it had little use. In fact some of the Hyuuga had been surprised to find the occasional orc, blood elf, or tauren without any chakra coils whatsoever. For some reason all trolls and Forsaken had chakra coils but even shinobi who trained to the point that they could sense chakra simply sitting within a civilian's coils couldn't feel it.

The Byakugan told Hyuuga sparring with Forsaken and Trolls what they were for, but even seeing it reacting to the racial stimuli (for Forsaken simply moving and existing, and for trolls their chakra was the source of their regeneration) they couldn't feel the alien chakra. Sarutobi suspected that the reason that shinobi had trouble sensing chakra from the other races of the Horde was because shinobi were used to sensing _human_ chakra and they simply weren't trained to sense the chakra of other races.

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1: "Burn and freeze: Frost Flame" in Orcish, now it isn't like a zanpakto from Bleach those words simply activate the fire and cold enchantments


	8. Training, Invasion, Leadership, and Medi

AN: From here on out things will be getting darker at times. Or at least as dark as I can make them, and even so it won't be dark all the time. I am also surprised I haven't gotten any reviews about Irertne's name yet, I thought the source was obvious. Before anyone asks, Naruto will _not_ learn the Rasengan. It is a close combat jutsu, Naruto is a mage. They don't mix and in addition he will never have the delicate control needed to use it.

A good WoW fic that I feel the need to recommend is Commiseration by Rowan Seven, it is a short friendship fic between Thrall and Sylvanas just after the Battle for Undercity.

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The day after Team Seven tortured a white-haired pervert; they met with the ones who taught them their non-shinobi skills for more training. Naruto with Lintheion, Hinata with Droga, and Sasuke with the rouge that Naruto and Hinata still couldn't figure out anything about. From what Sasuke had told his teammates, he still couldn't reach the energy that rouges used for their special abilities and therefore couldn't use most of them but his instructor said that he was close to doing so. Naruto hoped to learn a few new fire spells since he felt that he was neglecting that branch of magic. Hinata wanted to keep her training a secret so that it would be a surprise.

None of Team Seven saw the pervert during their month of training, though occasionally in the village Naruto would see the girl from Suna glaring at Lee as he was doing grocery shopping. Considering that nearly their entire generation were orphans, odds were that Lee lived in an apartment of his own. The first time seeing her glaring at Lee with such hatred, Naruto warned Lee that she may attack him before the Finals.

Lee's response was simple: "I am aware of that Naruto-kun. Keep in mind that I killed her brother, she is right to feel grief."

That didn't make Naruto feel any more comfortable, but he didn't argue. There wasn't much else that he could do anyway. Besides, Konoha was swarming with people who would stop any attack before it got a chance to finish.

Naruto considered his strategy against Shino for several hours each day. He would need a way to keep Shino's bugs off him. Even though he didn't use chakra very much, and he had at least as much chakra as the One-Tail, if those bugs started biting then he would be turned to bone very quickly. Odds were that as soon as Shino figured out how much chakra he had (Kakashi had confided in Naruto that he suspected that there weren't enough Aburame in existence to completely drain Naruto of his chakra) he would switch to meat eating bugs. That meant that Naruto would need a way to keep those bugs from wanting to get on him, either through heat or cold.

Naruto didn't know if there was a fire equivalent of the Frost Shield spell, but he decided that he would immediately start the match by casting Frost Shield and Arcane Intellect, summon a few Kage Bunshin, and then start bombarding Shino with Flame spells.

Zabuza surprised Naruto two days into the second week by showing up…missing several patches of skin, one eye, half his jaw, part of his skull, and a chunk of his leg. Needless to say he terrified several children who saw him even though people were used to the Forsaken by now. The manner of Zabuza greeting Naruto was simple: exactly like the first time they met, by chucking his sword at him. Since Naruto was training with Lintheion at the time, his sword was met with a spell that neither Naruto nor Zabuza recognized that completely shattered Zabuza's sword.

Naruto and Lintheion were greeted to the sight of a partially destroyed Zabuza weeping over the remains of his sword. Naruto was stuck between laughing and being worried about how quickly Zabuza was falling apart. He decided on the latter.

"Hey Zabuza, I know for a fact that unless you've been careless or been doing nonstop fighting then there is no way that you should be that beat up. You have been told that if you eat the bodies of humanoids and undead you'll regenerate right?" Naruto finished with his question.

Zabuza paused before standing up and answering, "Of course I've been told that. I just haven't been around enough of those kinds of bodies for mine to regenerate what I lost. I've mostly been down in Stranglethorn taking care of a bunch of murlocs and tigers. I realized that it was around this time that the Chuunin Exams would be held so I caught the first zeppelin over here to Kalimdor. From Orgrimmar I caught a wyvern as far south as I could then 'hoofed it' the rest of the way."

It was then that Naruto noticed two things about Zabuza's headband. One thing was that he had the Mist symbol replaced with a miniaturized version of the symbol that the Forsaken used and the second thing was that instead of a headband he had it bolted into his skull.

"Why did you bolt your headband to your skull?"

Zabuza gave a literal half grin and didn't answer.

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Zabuza taught Naruto a few more jutsus and chakra control techniques in addition to close combat for the remaining time until the matches. Two days after Zabuza arrived, Naruto thought of something else that he could use against Shino and may work against others as well. Nearly all of the bugs that the Aburame used fed on chakra, so if Naruto could figure out how to fire a blast of pure chakra then his bugs would be drawn to it like mosquitoes to a bug zapper. He left the thousand Kage Bunshin he created everyday to work on that.

Naruto had gotten to the point that his mental pain tolerance was high enough he could take the pain from seventy five Kage Bunshin popping at once without anyone else noticing but after that there would be slight visible signs up until a hundred fifty popped at once. What Naruto tended to do was have the Kage Bunshin work all day and just as he laid down to go to sleep at night have them pop. That would cause about five hundred (give or take) to pop with the other half having popped throughout the day.

Zabuza's combat training featured Naruto frantically dodging as the manically laughing undead swung at him with his repaired sword while Naruto was forbidden from using magic or chakra and basically forbidden from doing anything but dodging. While this led to several destroyed sets of robes and empty potion bottles, Naruto's dexterity increased immensely.

When Naruto told Zabuza that he expected his second competitor to be a Leaf genin who was unable to use chakra or mana (as he later discovered), Zabuza swiftly determined that that kind of opponent was perhaps the most dangerous. People who had been told their entire lives that they were worthless and couldn't ever stand up to those that could do what they couldn't, yet worked, struggled, and trained with little more on their side than pure stubbornness and determination. Naruto could tell immediately that Zabuza was speaking from experience.

"I wasn't always known as the 'Demon of the Mist' before I caught the Plague. Back when I was entering the Academy I was the physically weakest and frailest child there. I had a condition that sapped my strength and made it hard to breathe. I would have attacks where it was like a civilian running a marathon then trying to breathe through a straw(1). I was always told that I shouldn't be a shinobi; that I should quit. 'You'll never be a shinobi! Just give up so you won't make Mist look bad.' Blah, blah, blah; everyday for five years I put up with that while training my body in secret and hiding when in the Academy. I didn't have one friend in the Academy, I was at the bottom rung of the ladder, the dead last. Then Graduation Day came.

"At the time Mist had a halfway effective graduation test. Students would be split up with each other in sets of two. Then they would fight. To the death. It was halfway effective because it filtered out the crap but cut down the effective reserves by half. I changed that test though, when I slaughtered every other student there. I started with my partner then moved onto the Rookie of the Year. She lasted only a few seconds before I cut her down and moved on. Within half an hour I had slaughtered all but one out of a class of a hundred, that one being me."

Naruto blinked at Zabuza's story, surprised that Zabuza had killed so many so young.

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Soon, the day of the Finals came. Konoha was swarming with various other members of the Horde. A shinobi who had visited Outland named Shikuran Hayato along with Lintheion, Irertne, Volkin, and Windhorn formed the Hokage's bodyguards; which was commented on when the Kazekage sat down, "That sure is a large number of guards Sarutobi, perhaps you know something that I don't?"

_**"Or perhaps most of them wouldn't take no for an answer,"**_ the voice of Sylvanas said from the other side of Sarutobi as she sat down.

"Lady Sylvanas, I wasn't expecting you to show up. I trust you are well," Sarutobi stated with a polite nod.

_**"I am fine thank you and did you really expect me to miss this? After all, my adoptive nephew is competing and I enjoy seeing him on the rare occasions that I get to."**_

Meanwhile, the fake Kazekaze was starting to sweat. Despite the fact that he was now undead he knew that he could still be destroyed plus he feared what his new masters would do if he were to fail. He may not survive their wrath. He knew that he was no match for Sylvanas, and feared what he might have to do if she got involved in his fight with the old man. Plus the unexpected number of bodyguards. He would have to summon the previous Hokages from the start as well as some others that the Scourge had provided the spirits for. He could only hope that they would be enough.

Meanwhile, the first match was due to start and the tauren proctor from the preliminaries stood between Naruto and Shino and in his calm voice said, "The rules are the same as before. You stop when the other is dead, unconscious, or surrenders. Other than that, there are no rules," the proctor moved to the side before announcing: "Begin!"

Naruto immediately brought up Frost Armor and Arcane Intellect. Arcane Intellect increased both his intelligence and his mana while Frost Armor chilled the area around him, making it more uncomfortable for Shino's bugs. For a while Naruto would be safe up until he started using flesh eating bugs.

"Hey Shino, do any of your bugs eat meat?" Naruto asked, realizing that he had been assuming such the entire time.

"No, I do not have enough control over my current hive in order to introduce a new kind of insect into my body," Shino responded, causing Naruto to visibly relax.

"In that case, come at me with all the bugs you can."

Shino raised an eyebrow and took Naruto up on his offer and sent half of his hive at the blonde mage. Naruto was covered in bugs but he didn't lose his confident smirk, something that the bugs informed Shino of.

"You may not use chakra often, but even mages can die from losing all of their chakra," Shino stated.

"That's true. However I am different than most mages. When I first used my chakra for a jutsu after coming back from Konoha it was one called the Kage Bunshin. Said jutsu evenly splits the user's chakra between all of the clones. However it doesn't split mana. Anyway the first time I used it I created enough Kage Bunshin to populate the capital of Fire Country and Konoha," Naruto responded, causing everyone's eyes to widen.

The reason for everyone's reaction was that the capital of Fire Country had over a million residents plus Konoha had another five thousand. To evenly split your chakra over a million times and still have enough chakra to simply live was so much that most couldn't even begin to think of possessing that much chakra. Even Hoshigaki Kisame, reputed to have the largest chakra supply in the Elemental Nations, could only create max of a hundred at once.

"Proctor, I surrender. I do not have enough bugs to drain someone with that amount of chakra and I do not have anything else that would be able to defeat Naruto-san," Shino stated as the bugs on Naruto flew over and back into Shino.

"I would like to have a spar once you get around that handicap Shino," Naruto said with a smile as the two ascended to the balcony.

"I would like that as well."

The next match was Lee against Temari. Temari was still freaked out enough by Lee killing her brother that she forfeited from the get go. Lee met up with her on the stairs back up and calmly said, "I am sorry about your brother's death, but I could tell that the only way I would have lived was to do what I did. He died honorably in battle, he should be honored in memory."

Temari stared at Lee in surprise. Her brother's killer showed more care for Gaara's death than most of her village would. Most of Suna would be celebrating Gaara's death while he seemed to…honor her brother. It was something that she wasn't expecting.

Meanwhile Hinata and Tenten had entered the arena and were facing each other with respectful looks at the other. They recognized the other as skilled fighters, and they respected each other as female warriors in a male dominated society. Out of all the factions of the Horde, Konoha was the most gender biased. And considering that Konoha was the least gender biased of the ninja villages in the Elemental Countries that said a lot about the rest of the Horde.

"Begin."

Hinata started by creating a Stoneskin totem followed by a Searing totem. Tenten responded with a wave of kunai. Hinata quickly cast a Lightning Shield spell followed by chugging down a green potion. The lightning shield spell didn't stop the kunai, but when the first three kunai connected with Hinata, orbs of lightning flew out and slammed into Tenten, sending her flying backwards before she fell to the ground.

Tenten pushed herself up and glared at Hinata who was pulling the five kunai out of her. Everyone's eyes widened when they saw the wounds from the kunai heal faster than any medical jutsu.

Naruto chuckled when he realized what happened, "Hinata really is good at whipping up potions (2); I didn't know that she knew how to make Troll's Blood potions yet."

Nearly everyone knew what Troll's Blood potions did, they were the most sought after potion in Konoha after all. But Hinata's potion was far more effective than any that were on the market. Troll's Blood potions were good, but they couldn't restore what wasn't there like an eye or a missing arm.

Hinata then pulled out a small red ball with a string attached before the string started to burn like the fuse on fireworks. Tenten's eyes widened when she realized what the ball flying towards her was: a bomb. Though she got out of range of the explosion, the concussive force still sent her forward about a foot. Tenten growled before sending a flurry of kunai, shuriken, and throwing axes at the young shaman.

Hinata managed to dodge most of the flying implements, only for her eyes to widen as her opponent pulled two pistols out of a sealing scroll and open fire. One bullet went into her arm while the other plowed straight through her chest and her right lung. Hinata clutched her chest as the potion did its work before coughing out the little blood that was inside her lungs.

At that point it showed everyone why you shouldn't piss Hinata off. Simply put, Hinata battered Tenten around like a ping pong ball. Needless to say at that point Hinata won her match.

Sasuke hopped down to the arena after congratulating his teammate and waited for his opponent to come down. He had seen that his opponent used medical chakra in inventive ways so that it was usable in combat, seemingly favoring charka scalpels.

"Begin."

One thing in Sasuke's favor was that he learned how to hide using the methods that rouges use over the month. As soon as the proctor told them to start, he vanished from plain sight except to those skilled enough and knew what to look for. The only ones able to do so were those from the other races of the Horde and the few shinobi who had visited Outland. Needless to say Sasuke won due to the fact that Kabuto couldn't find him. The daggers at the throat and nuts were also good incentive as well.

Kankuro forfeited from the get go, causing suspicion amongst the other members of the Horde and higher ranked shinobi. So it was time for Naruto to face Lee.

"Let's have a good match Lee. Time for the age old debate of which is better, mage or warrior to enter the Elemental Nations," Naruto remarked with a smile that Lee reflected once the two were down.

"Agreed Naruto," Lee returned while holding his two-handed sword and resting it on his shoulder.

"Begin."

Naruto immediately cast Frost Shield and Arcane Intellect before summoning as few Kage Bunshin as he could…one hundred fifty. The front row laid down, with each row after that getting slightly higher so as not to impede the aim of the ones behind them. Insert wave of spells aimed at Lee.

Up in the 'Kage box, Sylvanas chuckled at the tactic that Naruto was using.

_**"It seems that my nephew is a one mage army. I would be interested in sending him against the Scourge once he is stronger."**_

"Uzumaki-san's skill with his spells is impressive, some of the mages I have worked with in Outland didn't have as much control over them as he does," Shikuran Hayato remarked from his spot behind Sarutobi.

Noticed to Sarutobi's guards and Sylvanas (not Sarutobi himself though) the "Kazekage" tensed slightly and concentrated further on the match. Or more specifically on Naruto. Hayato whispered to Volkin in Troll, _"Warn Hokage-sama, the Kazakage's a fake."_

_"I can tell,"_ Volkin whispered back before leaning next to Sarutobi and whispering the warning in Orcish. Sarutobi gave no outward sign that he acknowledged, but Volkin knew that he got the message.

Meanwhile, Lee had actually managed to reach the first row of clones without receiving more than a glancing blow. Insert multiple swings of large hunk of sharpened metal meeting clone flesh. Unfortunately for the crowd, the smoke from the exploding clones blocked the sight of the match for the next few minutes, during which there was a loud cry of pain before Lee went flying out of the arena into the stands.

"Winner, Uzumaki-Windrunner Naruto."

Lintheion and Sylvanas smiled and applauded before pausing. The sixth sense that alerted those skilled enough to danger was going off. It was at that point that there was an explosion from one of the walls as a massive three-headed snake was summoned and swarms of Oto and Suna nins along with the undead Scourge descended upon the village. Lintheion, Volkin, Irertne, Windhorn, and Hayato formed a circle around Sarutobi as a smoke bomb went off within the Kage box.

In the stadium, Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke stood back to back as undead came at them. Sasuke lit two bombs and threw them into the swarms as Hinata flung balls of lightning and Naruto cast his various spells. The other genin held well against the undead, Lee destroyed multitudes with a single swing of his sword, Choji turned his arms into gigantic versions and squashed enemy nin and undead alike, Neji cut off the chakra keeping them animated, Shikamaru worked in tandem with Ino to take out undead by the dozens, Shino's bugs turned them into rotted corpses, Tenten put enough metal into them that they "died", Sakura used low level fire techniques in creative ways to take the undead out, and Kiba with Akamaru turned into slicing whirlwinds that took out half a dozen undead with each pass.

_**"Well well well what do we have here?"**_ Sylvanas asked with a chuckle as she drew her bow and aimed it at the fake Kazekage.

"Probably some puppet of Arthas out on a personal vendetta against this village," Lintheion remarked as his hands started to glow red.

"Dat o' a missing-nin out fo' 'evenge," Volkin suggested as his clanked his ax and shield together while totems appeared around him.

"How about all of the above? It's been a long time, _sensei,_" the 'Kazekage' drawled as he pulled his face off to show an extremely pale face with snake-like eyes.

_**"I thought I smelled a rotten snake. Oh well, time to die for good," **_Irertne remarked as he faded from view while drawing his daggers.

Orochimaru smirked before flashing through a few handseals and slamming his hand on the ground. As the floor rumbled, five clearly undead shinobi appeared and created a barrier around Orochimaru and themselves. Orochimaru stood up with a smirk as six coffins rose up from the ground in front of him before opening with a dramatic cloud of smoke. Out of the three coffins on the left walked shinobi, all of which were recognized from the Hokage Monument: the Shodiame, Nidiame, and Yondiame. The other three, made Orochimaru's enemies' blood boil.

"What is going on, the last thing that I remember is me and my mate (3) being ambushed and then I'm in a place with architecture and a few races that I don't recognize. Wait, what happened to my son!?" an orc that all present except for Sarutobi recognized asked in a panicked voice.

"Lintheion, Sylvanas, what's going on? Where is our son?" a female blood elf in priestly robes asked.

"Why do I be getting' a bad feelin' 'bout all dis mon?" a jungle troll asked.

"Honorable Durotan, you and your wife died in that ambush and your son grew up to become Warchief and returned the orcs to the way of the shamans," Hayato said with a brief bow towards the father of the orc Warchief Thrall.

_**"Dear Iraededa, you and Reyadriel fell when Arthas and the Scourge attacked our homeland. I now lead the undead that have broken away from the control of the Scourge,"**_ Sylvanas said to her sister-in-law with unshed tears into her eyes while Lintheion shook with barely contained rage.

"Great Sen'jin, da Darkspear Tribe has join'd wit da Horde and now be ruled by da shadowhunta' Vol'jin. I be sorry 'bout what we 'bout ta do," Volkin remarked.

"Orochimaru, you have gone TOO FAR!!!" Lintheion roared as he began unleashing his fury upon the animated warriors of the past.

The Shodiame Hokage was frozen into a block of ice while the Nidiame was simultaneously completely incinerated. The Yondiame threw several tri-tipped kunai at the defenders while Orochimaru threw tagged kunai into the heads of the three remaining animated corpses…only for thrown daggers to cut the tags off of the kunai in mid-flight. Irertne de-stealthed and slammed two of his daggers into Orochimaru's shoulders and pulled them apart. Hayato plashed through a few handseals and sent a bolt of lightning at the six armed undead shinobi. Windhorn shifted into his bear form and roared as he charged the one with a strange tail, whom drew out bones shaped like swords. One of the undead pulled out a flute, only to receive and arrow to her throat curtsey of Sylvanas. The largest of the undead roared as he charged Volkin who simply shook his head and performed a Flame Shock followed up by a Lightning Shield.

However at that point there was a flash of yellow as all of the defenders received slashes and stabs at various body parts in lethal points, before the Troll's Blood Potions kicked in. Volkin looked at the stab in his chest as it and his heart healed before asking Sarutobi, "An' _'e_ was da most powerful sh'nobi ta come out o' Konoha?"

"Yes, the only one that has come close has been Uchiha Itachi," Sarutobi responded.

The Yondiame started to vanish in another flash of yellow before a black flash met the yellow and revealed Hayato crossing kunai with the Yondiame.

"You guys handle Orochimaru, I'll handle Yondiame-sama!" Hayato shouted before getting inside the Yondiame's guard and wrapping his arms around him and vanishing in a black flash.

Sarutobi was momentarily stunned that another shinobi had figured out how to use the Hirashin. After this battle, he was naming Hayato the Godiame Hokage. Snapping himself out of his thoughts, he summoned Enma who took one look at Orochimaru and remarked, "I know I told you that you should have killed the little shit years ago, but that's not what I had in mind."

"This will most likely be our last fight together Enma, staff form," Sarutobi requested in a cold voice.

Enma's eyebrows rose before he did as requested. Sarutobi grabbed the monkey staff (5) and charged at the two headed undead who simply grinned and split into two one headed undead.

"Sakon! What's going on, what happened to us?" the newer undead asked, catching the attention of most of the combatants, Lintheion was still to mad to focus on much except Orochimaru.

"Well Ukon, we have joined a new master. Our King has granted us great power in exchange for our loyalty," the other one responded as he charged Sarutobi.

Sarutobi slammed his monkey staff into Sakon's side, causing him to fold over the staff as there was a crack from his spine breaking. Sakon gave a smirk before biting down into Enma's staff form, resulting in the Boss of the Ape Summons Clan to scream in pain as the Plague flowed through his veins. A common misconception is that summons can't die on our plane. That is wrong. If something works fast enough they will stay dead, they normally are able to return to their own plane to heal before they are killed.

"How do you like the new improved Plague? Works on just about anything, even those from the Burning Legion and from the plane where the Summons Clans reside. The entire Snake Summons Clan has been 'recruited' into service for the Lich King," Sakon boasted before another figure tackled him.

"What is wrong with you? What happened to my brother?" Ukon demanded as he slammed Sakon's head against the ground repeatedly before he was thrown off.

_**"Your brother is under the control of the Lich King just like the rest of your comrades, you'll be doing him a favor by destroying him,"**_ Sylvanas remarked as she filled the undead guard she shot earlier with enchanted arrows that dropped her to the ground.

"Wrong, I serve no one but Orochimaru-sama," the undead that was facing Windhorn said as he tried to drag what was left of his body so that he could continue fighting.

Meanwhile, at the top of the Hokage Monument, Hayato and the Yondiame appeared in a black flash before they split apart. The Yondiame's eyes narrowed before a ball of swirling chakra appeared in his right hand. Hayato simply smirked and pointed his arm towards the raised Hokage with his palm out. Black chakra started forming in front of his palm and shifted into a swirling disk. The disk moved back towards Hayato and formed a tight fitting gauntlet over his arm before the two most powerful shinobi ever to come from Konoha rushed at each other.

Hayato smirked as his hand caught the Rasengan and launched a kick covered with green flames (4). The Yondiame's other arm blocked the kick, only for Hayato to jump away as the green fire covered the Yondiame.

"My time in Outland, Lordaeron, and the rest of Kalimdor has taught me much, more than new techniques, more than new ways to use chakra, more more than skills in fighting, it has taught me the value of allies, something that we shinobi are unused to. Even Konoha has never valued allies as much as our new ones do. For more than just my home, for more than just the Horde, for all living creatures, you have to be stopped here. I can't allow the one to defeat the Kyuubi to serve the Scourge," Hayato growled as the body serving as host for the Yondiame's spirit and power turned into less than ash.

"Now, time to clear out the rabble," Hayato muttered as he flashed throughout Konoha's streets, a green flaming fist slamming into the remaining non-Horde fighting in the village before flashing back to the Hokage's side.

Just in time to see Lintheion start throwing everything that he had at Orochimaru. Now, Orochimaru always was one of the most powerful shinobi in the world. Add in the various enhancements he had done to his body, and his status as an undead, he would have been a match for Sarutobi in his prime. Lintheion on a bad day could wipe the floor with Sarutobi. Undead or not, Orochimaru was never a match for a pissed Lintheion. Had all of the ones that he'd raised been protecting him, then he might have stood a chance. But one was frozen solid, another was turned into ash (controlling seal and all), the third had been drawn away, the last three were killed when the kunai originally intended to regenerate and control them had the seal tag that would do all of that cut off.

Simply put, Orochimaru was screwed. That fact was compacted when ANBU and other visiting Horde members surrounded him. The Scourge was beaten back, Oto was wiped out, and Suna's forces were nearly destroyed. Lintheion had a smirk on his face as Sarutobi and Sylvanas walked up to stand next to him in front of Orochimaru, whose arms were a number of feet away from him.

"Orochimaru, you cannot be allowed to continue to serve the Scourge. I only know of one way to guarantee your permanent destruction. Lintheion-kun, do you think you can place him in a form of suspended animation while I make all of the preparations?" Sarutobi asked the blood elf.

"Leave it to me," Lintheion said as ice entombed the undead shinobi.

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Two days later, Sarutobi stood in front of the Council alongside Hayato, Lintheion, Windhorn, Volkin, and Irertne. Sylvanas had returned to Undercity, saying that she didn't trust Varimathras with running the city for very long. Orochimaru had been incinerated and scattered to the winds by a very happy Lintheion the day before and the repairs to the village were progressing very well with help from the various nongoblin engineers that stayed in Konoha.

Anyway, today was the day that the results from judging in the Chuunin Exams and a special surprise that Sarutobi had in mind.

"Bring the genin in," Danzo ordered to the ANBU stationed at the doors.

The two ANBU nodded and opened the doors to the Council Chambers and in stepped Shino, Shikamaru, Naruto, Hinata, Sasuke, and Lee. All six kneeled before Sarutobi and the other leaders of Konoha before rising.

Sarutobi stepped in front of Lee (who now always had his sword across his back) and walked along the line before walking in front of the group and said, "If every chuunin were chosen by the exam then we would be immensely short on chuunin and none of you would be here today. Most chuunin are promoted through actions on the battlefield. Every one of you have shown the skills necessary for chuunin rank. Congratulations."

After the group received their vests, Sarutobi cleared his throat and continued, "Now then, I have an announcement. This battle has shown me that it is time for me to retire. I realized what I have been missing, both here, out in the world, and beyond. Now Konoha cannot go without a Hokage, and so I name Shikuran Hayato as my successor and as Godiame Hokage."

Hayato's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates in shock before he stammered, "H-H-Hokage-sama, no offense meant, but are you sure about making me the next Hokage? Surely one of you two remaining students could take over."

Sarutobi frowned before answering, "No, Tsunade has not been in the village for over a decade and Jiraiya has shown himself prejudice and arrogant. We cannot have a Hokage who hasn't been in the village for almost as long as our youngest genin have been alive and Jiraiya would refuse to work with the rest of the Horde. Besides, neither of them could defeat the raised Yondiame in just a few minutes, survive in Outland, nor recreate the Hirashin no Jutsu."

Hayato chuckled before he mumbled, "Improved."

"What was that?" Inuzuka Tsume asked, interested.

"I actually improved on the Hirashin no Jutsu. Yondiame-sama needed his special kunai for it; I eliminated the need for those since they were too easy to lose in Outland."

"All the more reason for you to become Hokage," Sarutobi quipped with a shit-eating grin.

At that, Hayato relented. It was agreed that Sarutobi would spend the next month easing Hayato into the Hokage position upon which Hayato would meet with the other leaders of the Horde in a small meeting to bring Konoha further into the Horde than they were before. As Hayato had said before, Konoha was not used to alliances as close as most of the Horde was.

A few days later, Team Seven was called into the Hokage's office. The new chuunins bowed to Hayato and Sarutobi before Naruto, the unofficial leader and strategist of the group, asked, "How may we be of assistance Lord Hokage? No offense, but shouldn't we be helping in the reconstruction?"

Hayato gave a slight smile before answering, "I have an A-Rank mission for the three of you. When your genin team and others returned from the disaster at Wave with information on the planned invasion Hiruzen sent out a recall order to all high level shinobi in the field. Two did not return. The three of you are to go with the only remaining teammate for the higher level of the two shinobi and bring them back, by force if necessary. If they resist to a great enough degree, then you are to treat them as S-Rank missing-nin. Normally I wouldn't send a group of chuunin on this sort of mission, but your team have shown themselves to be closer to jounin level than not. Your actions at Wave and during the invasion prove this."

The three smiled before bowing once again, this time in gratitude, before Hinata asked, "Who are we working with during this mission Hokage-sama?"

"The three of you have already met him. You did give him the pervert punishment."

The happy expressions on their faces vanished faster than goblin tech explodes. Sasuke growled out, "With all due respect Hokage-sama, isn't there someone else who could take his place on the mission? Word of his prejudice has reached all parts of the Horde and we are more like those from other parts of the Horde than Konoha."

"I understand your feelings regarding Jiraiya, I myself share them. Unfortunately his spy network is the only resource we have capable of tracking Tsunade. I hope that we won't have to label her as a missing-nin, but we may have no choice. All three of you in your own ways are capable of taking out Tsunade. Naruto, your sheer capacity for Kage Bunshin turn you into a one mage army; Sasuke, you can hide like a rogue, enough said; Hinata, your totems are capable of counteracting her super-strength technique.

"One last thing, Jiraiya will most likely try to stop at every village with a bathhouse to do what he calls research for his perverted books. I give you permission to use any means necessary to keep him focused. I considered sending a priest with you to threaten to scramble his brains if he peeped, but we need all of them here for healing and keeping the hospital running."

The team clearly wasn't happy with the set up, but wasn't going to argue. At the least this would be an exercise in their patience and tolerance for later missions.

Two hours later Team Seven met with the pervert they tortured over a month ago at the North Gate. Jiraiya nodded in greeting and turned around before walking through the gate. Team Seven glanced at each other before following him, no one speaking.

For Team Seven, there was simply nothing to say. For Jiraiya, he was trying to think of ways that he could shake his minders and go do research along with ways to convince them to go back to being superior shinobi instead of those weak "classes" that those monstrosities brought to Konoha. Had the Horde never showed up, then neither would the Scourge and Oto wouldn't have attacked (yes we know better, but Jiraiya doesn't know how to break the 4th Wall and is a prejudice bastard; nothing they think makes sense to other people).

The first town they visited was a dead end, same with the second, and the third. The forth one had a casino manager recognize Tsunade from a few months ago, even if it was only because of her rather large gambling debt. Everyone was able to figure out how she paid it off when they saw the far off look on the man's face and the drool coming out of his mouth. That town shattered the last respect that Team Seven had for the remains of the Sanin. They were even wondering if they should bring Tsunade back to Konoha.

The next town they went to was a major gambling town, so according to Jiraiya's sources would be a likely place to find Tsunade. However, considering that the sun was setting, the group unanimously agreed to stay in a hotel and take a whack at looking for Tsunade tomorrow. One of the many things that one got used to whether you were shinobi, mage, warrior, whatever, was a lack of privacy when on missions; thus there was only one room. Jiraiya went downstairs to get a drink, leaving Team Seven in the room to relax.

"Read it and weep, Royal Flush!" Sasuke said as he laid down the ten, jack, queen, king, and ace of hearts and start pulling the pile of coins towards him.

"Really, because the last time I checked spades beats hearts," Naruto replied as he laid down his own royal flush.

Sasuke's eyes widened so much that Hinata and Naruto thought his eyeballs would roll out of his head. With a grin, Naruto smacked the back of Sasuke's head, causing said eyeballs to actually pop out and start rolling around on the floor. Hinata fell onto her back clutching her sides laughing when Sasuke dived after them and ended up scattering the pile of coins on the floor.

All three paused when there was a knock on the hotel room door. Sasuke picked up his eyes and placed them back into place and glanced to Naruto who walked over to the door. Sasuke vanished as Hinata laid down a Stoneskin totem in the middle of the hotel room. Naruto slowly opened the door to reveal a man that looked like an older Sasuke and a giant of a man with blue skin and a wrapped bundle on his back.

"Uzumaki Naruto?" the Sasuke look-alike asked.

"Technically it's _Windrunner_-Uzumaki Naruto, but yes. May I inquire the purpose of two missing-nin, one of which from my own village asking for me?"

"You will come with us."

"Might I ask for what reason?"

"Hey, Itachi, can I just cut his legs off? It'll make this much easier," the blue skinned missing-nin from Kiri remarked.

"It is a valid question. Our organization seeks the Biju. You are the vessel for the Kyuubi. We want its power," Itachi answered.

"Let me guess, the unsealing process would kill me."

"Yes."

"If you can find a way to get rid of it without killing me, then you can have the fuzz ball."

The two blinked in surprise, obviously not expecting that response. Naruto felt two small squishy things pressed into his hand and understood what Sasuke wanted.

"By the way, your brother wanted me to give you something if we were to ever meet," Naruto said as he held hand semi-closed fist out.

Itachi raised an eyebrow and held his hand out, palm up, under Naruto's fist. When Naruto opened his hand, two small, white slimy balls with black spots on them fell into Itachi's hand, causing his own eyes to widen in shock.

"S-Sasuke's dead?"

"Yup."

Itachi fell to his knees while staring at the eyeballs in his hand staring back at him. Naruto could _feel_ the grin on his teammate's face as he snuck up to Itachi and picked his eyeballs out of his brother's hand and put them back into their sockets as he faded into view.

After rolling his eyes around in his sockets to get them orientated, Sasuke looked at the shocked blue man and the passed out Itachi and asked, "What, never seen a Forsaken before?"

(AN: I considered cutting it off here, but I wanted to get the Search for Tsunade Arc over with.)

After the missing-nin that Naruto entertained thoughts of his mother getting frisky with a naga took Itachi with him back to their organization to deliver Naruto's message, Jiraiya came back up completely and utterly hammered. The three chuunin frowned at the supposedly "Greatest of the Sanin". What a waste.

The next day, Naruto awoke as the sun rose and headed downstairs for the breakfast buffet (Yeah he had plenty of food sealed away in crystals, but it was nice to have someone else's cooking once in a while.). As he loaded up his plate with eggs, bacon, and a muffin, he walked back towards the only remotely empty table which had a black haired woman and a pig at it already.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" Naruto asked the twenty-something woman.

"Go ahead, do you mind if I ask for your name?" the woman asked after motioning to an empty chair.

"Name's Naruto. What's yours?"

"Shizune, what brings you to town?"

"My team, a higher ranked shinobi that we've been babysitting, and I came looking for a woman that the village leader wants back. She went undercover and the organization in which she was spying on went down before I was born. We were sent to try to find out if she was killed or went rogue."

"You don't look like a shinobi."

"I received training from a wandering mage and prefer spells over jutsu. I've also got a condition that makes it darn near impossible for me to have much control over my chakra, so it's also more practical. So why are _you_ here?"

"I'm also doing a little bit of the babysitting myself. You at least a team to help you, it's just me and my former sensei. I've learned all she had to teach me, but now I stay with her because quite frankly she'd fall apart without me. I want to go back home so badly, but I can't just leave her."

"You're talking about Tsunade of the Sanin aren't you?"

Shizune straightened up and her eyes widened in horror before Naruto continued, "I have no ill will towards her unless she refuses to come back to Konoha. The Godiame Hokage has ordered her to come back home, we need all the help we can to aid in the rebuilding after the invasion from the Scourge. Tsunade was heralded as the greatest medic in the world, whether or not that's true her expertise should be helpful."

"There's a slight problem with you and your team convincing her to come back to Konoha," Shizune started before a woman's voice from behind her interrupted:

"I swore to never return to that cursed village."

Naruto calmly stood up and faced the blonde haired woman with ridiculously large assets before saying in a calm, professional voice, "Tsunade of the Sanin, by order of the Godiame Hokage you are to return to Konoha immediately. Should you refuse, we have been told to treat you as a missing-nin and bring you back to Konoha by force. I will give you one chance to answer this question, what is your choice?"

"Like I said, I'll never return to that village. And nothing you can do will convince me."

Tsunade brought her fist back to punch Naruto who simply held up a hand and said, "Perhaps we should take this _outside_ of the city? Unless you want to break yet another oath that you made."

Shizune blinked before realizing the oaths that he was talking about, the first was one that every shinobi swore upon becoming a genin, to serve Konoha 'til death and the second was the oath that medics made: to preserve life whenever they can, and to not take life unless there was no choice. If Tsunade were to have punched Naruto with her technique, then the direction he would have flown would have taken out a major support beam and would have brought the entire hotel down on their heads. Not even Tsunade could survive having a seven story building fall on top of her. Tsunade growled before nodding. Naruto followed her and Shizune out of the hotel while casting a messenger spell to wake up his team.

Upon entering the forest surrounding the village, Tsunade stopped and turned towards Naruto who simply kept walking and said, "Nowhere near enough room."

Another mile in, Naruto stopped and formed a cross shaped seal before the entire visible forest was covered in blonde mages, all facing away from Tsunade. As one, the clones turned around and in unison asked, "Still want to say no? The Kage Bunshin doesn't split mana, and due to my tenant I have enough chakra that I could populate all of Hi no Kuni and barely make a drop in my stores of chakra."

Tsunade growled out, "Fine, we'll go back."

"Nothing personal, you simply refused to obey a simple order to come back home, and we were sent to bring you back. What were you doing that was so important out here anyway? Gambling you family's fortune away and resort to paying your debt off with sex?"

"TSUNADE-SAMA?!" Shizune cried out in shock upon seeing her mentor look down in shame.

"Well, I guess that Naruto didn't need us after all," Hinata remarked as she and Sasuke walked into the clearing.

Shizune snapped her head towards the two before turning back to the Naruto closest to her and asked, "Are they your teammates?"

"Yes, Hyuuga Hinata and Uchiha Sasuke are the other members of our team. We were promoted due to our actions during the invasion at the end of the Chuunin Exams. Each of us favors skills taught to us from other parts of the Horde," Naruto said as the clones dispersed in groups of a hundred.

Team Seven led Tsunade back to the hotel and sent her and Shizune to pack their bags while Naruto sent a bunshin that followed them up to get Jiraiya. When Tsunade and Shizune went up the stairs, Sasuke faded away and followed them to make sure that they didn't try to sneak away as Naruto gave another batch of clones to surround the building.

Sasuke easily followed the two into their room (not having a heartbeat to be heard was helpful, plus there was a reason for the expression: "silent as the grave") and heard the argument between the two.

"How _dare_ that brat force me to return?! I lost both Nawaki and Dan to that village and to that cursed position!" Tsunade ranted, actually saying a lot more that equated to the same thing.

"Tsunade-sama, we have been away for a long time, perhaps we should have already gone back already," Shizune calmly said, trying to placate her mentor.

"Shizune, you know my feelings regarding the village. Had that brat not pulled out an army of clones I would have pounded him into paste!

"I know! On our way back I'll sneak a sleeping drug into their food and get away when they fall asleep when they should be guarding us."

"I'm afraid that won't work," Sasuke said as he faded into view while leaning against the wall.

Tsunade's head snapped to Sasuke and paled upon realizing that he heard her plans to get away, before asking, "And just why would that be little Chuunin? Do you really think that you could stop me without your teammate?"

"Yes I do, all I'd have to do is cut myself and you'd be useless. Your teammate told us about your paralyzing fear of blood. In addition to that, try your little sleeping drug plan and I _will_ kill you.

"POLYMORPH!"

Tsunade blinked at the apparent randomness before a light blue beam shot through the window and hit the legendary medic and with a cloud of smoke there was a sheep in its place. Shizune blinked multiple times as Sasuke put the sheep in a back and tossed it over his shoulder before walking out of the room calling back, "You coming or not?"

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Team Seven and Shizune walked into the Hokage Tower with two burlap sacks over the shoulders of Naruto and Sasuke. The group of four entered Hayato's office and bowed before Naruto handed his sack to Hinata and in his professional voice said, "Team Seven returning from an A-Rank mission."

"At ease," Hayato said with a slight smile.

The four relaxed as Hayato continued, "So how did the mission go?"

"After leaving Konoha we made stops in three towns without finding any hint as to Tsunade's whereabouts. In the fourth two a casino manager remembered her due to a large debt that she had worked up and paying off that debt through sexual favors. We reached the fifth town too late in the day to do any searching and so went to our rooms while Jiraiya went to the bar to get drunk.

"While entertaining ourselves through a game of poker, which I won, we were interrupted by two missing-nin: Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame. They claimed to be part of an organization after the remaining Biju and wished for me to go with them. I bluffed and said that if they could find a way to remove the Kyuubi without killing me I would let their organization have it.

"The next morning I ran into Tsunade's former apprentice by chance and learned that she wished to return to Konoha but was unwilling to abandon Tsunade. Tsunade arrived during our conversation and under the threat of an army of Kage Bunshin managed to convince her to return. By that time Hinata and Sasuke had caught up with us and we returned to the hotel to grant them the time to pack. Sasuke hid and followed them to their room to make sure that they didn't try to escape while I had some of the remaining clones surround the hotel and an individual one to get Jiraiya."

Naruto took a step back and Sasuke stepped forward to take over, "Neither Tsunade nor Shizune noticed me as I followed them up to their room. Upon checking the room for shinobi methods of hiding, rather poorly I might add, Tsunade expressed her frustration at being forced to return, even going so far as to plan to drug us with sleeping agents and fleeing on the trip back. I showed myself and told her her plan wouldn't work on myself since she was unaware of my status as an undead.

"Tsunade then asked if I thought that I could beat her in a fight, I gave my answer and knowing that Naruto would have the building surrounded called for one of them to perform a Polymorph spell. Upon securing Tsunade, I returned downstairs with Shizune and met with my teammates, Naruto having Jiraiya in a sack of his own, before we used our hearthstones to return to Konoha."

"Let me guess, Tsunade and Jiraiya are both currently sheep and in the sacks," Hayato drawled with an amused smile.

Hinata and Sasuke grinned and dumped the contents of their sacks out, revealing two innocent looking sheep, one of which cowered away from Team Seven.

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AN: And I'm going to cut it off here. I'm going to be having a smaller chapter after this then go into the sequel that I have planned out. As most of you can tell, there will not be a Sasuke Retrieval Arc. And before anyone asks, Orochimaru will not be coming back, he is dead for good. I am currently unsure if I will have the Plague spread to all of the Summons Clans, but for sure the Snake and Ape Clans. The sequel will take place during the Timeskip, and will be a crossover with Lord of the Rings. One last thing, with the announcement of the third expansion (Cataclysm), I will be adding the new Alliance race sooner than actual lore while ignoring the new Horde race.

1 – I heard someone with I think asthma describe an attack being like that a few years ago

2 – I'm making Hinata an alchemist based on her skill with stuff like that in cannon

3 – I don't know what the orc term for wife is, so I'm using the same as what night elves used in the War of the Ancients series

4 – He got the idea from the flames that are a part of the Burning Legion and found a way to copy them


	9. Capturing a Traitor

AN: This is the final chapter for the first part of the Mage Trained Kitsune series. As I said before (I think), I will be adding things from Cataclysm early; as in, this chapter.

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Two weeks after bringing back Tsunade, Team Seven were gathered at their old training grounds for a non-shinobi related meeting.

"So why did you ask us here Sasuke? It's not like you to get us together for something non business related," Hinata remarked with unhidden curiosity on her face.

_"I was wondering if the two of you would mind moving into the Uchiha Complex. I'd gotten used to the solitude, but I still would like the two of you to live with me there,"_ Sasuke told them, his voice-box having partially rotted during the two weeks.

"I wouldn't mind, my current apartment's kind of small and not the best place to study magic," Naruto said with a shrug.

"I'd have to ask tou-san, but I can't say for sure one way or the other," Hinata commented softly.

_"That's okay, if you can't move in, just let us know."_

There was a cloud of smoke as a messenger-nin appeared and read off his scroll, "Former Team Seven is to report to the Hokage's office immediately, Urgency Level Black," before disappearing to deliver his next message.

The group's eyes widened in shock before they scrambled to their feet and rushed to the Hokage Tower. Urgency Level Black meant that there was a potential security breach in the village. The three had an idea of what the situation could possibly be, but they didn't want to come to any premature conclusions.

They arrived at the Hokage's office to see Shino, Lee, and Shikamaru already waiting for them and a crying Shizune, allowing them to come to the correct conclusion.

"Tsunade left didn't she?" Hinata asked as she cast a Rejuvenation spell on Shizune.

"Yes, and she had help. It turns out that she had been approached by the Alliance in private and they offered her a place in Stormwind. We don't know the reasons why, but we can't let her share what she knows about the village. Worst comes to worst, I am authorizing lethal force on Tsunade ONLY. We can't afford anyone in the Alliance using this as an excuse to go to war on the Horde," Hayato said to the group who bowed and left.

Known only to jounin and select chuunin Konoha had lost a great deal of forces in the invasion. The new plague was more powerful than the last one, but only seemed to transfer through bite, and had not created a single Forsaken. Thus Konoha's forces were rather low at the moment. Meaning that the majority of the ones more suited to take this mission were already on ones of their own.

Shikamaru looked at the group and said, "Meet at the East Gate in fifteen minutes, if you're not there at that time you'll be left here."

The five others nodded before vanishing. Naruto and Sasuke grabbed their favored weapons at their residences before meeting at one of the stables so they could pickup mounts for the rest of the team. Naruto still had his skeletal horse while Sasuke had picked up a wolf mount a few days before and Hinata had obtained a raptor. They were picking up one of each of the above mounts for the other three on the mission since a kodo would be too large to properly maneuver in the forests around Konoha.

Two minutes later, all of Team Seven was at the East Gate while preparing the spare mounts. In another five minutes the rest of the team showed up, Shikamaru carrying one of Tsunade's spare vests.

"Here's the plan, Sasuke, you lead with your wolf tracking Tsunade's scent. Naruto, you'll be directly behind him, followed by me, Lee, Hinata, and Shino with his bugs bringing up the rear. We get in, get Tsunade, and get out. Any questions?" Shikamaru, the mission's strategist, asked.

"Just one, do the three of you know how to ride these?" Naruto asked while motioning to the spare mounts.

Upon receiving three affirmatives, the team of six set off.

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_"On the stormy shores of Azeroth, a silhouette did stand. A brave and stalwart sailor who gave a helpin' hand,"_ a black haired man in gray plate armor softly sung as he and five others escorted the ninja woman towards the port where the ship waiting to take them to Stormwind was waiting.

"Will you stop singing already?" a high pitched voice asked to his left.

The man looked at the gnome with an amused smile before complying.

"Are you sure that we should be stopping, Konoha will have noticed that I left by now and will have sent shinobi after us," Tsunade said to a robe wearing night elf.

"We don't have much of a choice, our mounts need rest and we don't have a way to give you a hearthstone. Once our mounts are rested enough we'll press on," the female night elf responded while flipping through a book.

Tsunade sighed before looking over the ones who got her out of the cursed village. The man who had started signing again claimed not to be human, but wouldn't say what he was. There was the black robed gnome who was shouting at him again, the night elf that she was just talking to, two dwarves (one in robes the other in leather armor), and a human woman sharpening and polishing one of her twin swords while absentmindedly scratching behind the ears of a gray furred wolf. All at once, all five of them froze before calling their mounts out of the crystals that both the Horde and Alliance used for sealing. The armored man grabbed her before shoving her in front of him on his black horse.

"MOVE!" the night elf shouted as six other mounted figures broke out of the tree line: two each riding undead horses, massive wolves, and reptilian raptors.

Tsunade instantly recognized Team Seven and gave a slight growl as the man behind her tossed a bomb behind him.

"Fly I'll hold them off!" the man said before leaping off his horse and growling like a wild animal as he pulled his two handed ax off his back.

As he growled, fur sprouted on his body while bones shifted. His face extended into a snout, revealing himself to be a dark brown worgen. The mounts drew short of his ax's reach as Naruto muttered, "Since when can worgen change at will?"

"I'll handle him, get Tsunade!" Lee shouted as he jumped off his mount and brought his sword to meet with the worgen's ax.

The rest of the shinobi raced after the remaining Alliance soldiers taking Tsunade as the worgen growled to Lee, _"No hard feelings, we were just assigned by the King of Stormwind to get Tsunade, and no matter who you are you don't turn down a mission from someone that powerful."_

"Well we can't let you take her, she has information about the village that we can't let get out," Lee answered before he broke out of the stalemate and held his sword in front of him while muttering the incantation to activate his sword's offensive enchantments.

The worgen grinned before charging at Lee with a wide swing faster than his armor and the size of his weapon implied, forcing the black haired boy to block before he was cut in half. Lee started to sweat as he realized that this Alliance warrior was beyond his skill, but he had to at least stall him as best he could. If he caught back up with the others then his comrades wouldn't stand a chance.

Lee's thoughts distracted him for only a split second. But to the skilled soldiers of the Horde and Alliance, a split second during combat is all the time in the world to act. A shifting spin of his ax allowed the worgen to slam the blunt end of his ax into Lee's back, stunning the spinal column and temporarily paralyzing Lee from just under his shoulder blades (AN: if your spine is hit in the right way you are temporarily paralyzed, I've had it happen to me before).

The worgen stood over the fallen Lee before he raised his ax over his head. Lee closed his eyes, preparing himself for death.

_"You fought well, I look forward to our next fight when you are stronger,"_ the worgen said before Lee heard the sound of a hearthstone being activated.

"I will defeat you next time. And if I cannot do that I will do five hundred laps around Konoha! And if I cannot do that I will defeat a thousand quillboar without any equipment whatsoever! And if I cannot do that…" (AN: What? He's still Lee and been corrupted by Gai.)

Meanwhile, the dwarf in leather armor broke off from the group and hopped off his mount before pulling a finely crafted shield and mace off his back. Drawing in the energy needed for his next move, he held it in until the team from Konoha got into range before unleashing it.

Hinata's eyes widened as she barely recognized the spell before she hollered: "MOVE!"

Hinata's warning came just in time, for as the group separated a burst of fire shot at where the group would have been. Her eyes narrowed as the dwarf started casting another spell…another _SHAMAN_ spell. With a growl, she cast an Earth Shock spell while motioning that she would handle him. The others raced after the rest of the Alliance group and the dwarf growled at Hinata as he summoned a Stoneskin totem.

Hinata responded with an Earthbind totem and cast another Earth Shock as he started summoning another totem. One of the things that made Earth Shock so useful against spellcasters was that if it was used while said spellcaster was in the middle of casting then they were unable to form their mana in the same general manner for a period of time. Chugging down a potion of hers, Hinata then drew her shield and ax before charging at the dwarf.

The dwarf lifted his shield sluggishly, though still fast enough to block Hinata's ax aimed for his head. He responded with a swipe of his mace, which Hinata easily dodged. With a smirk, Hinata holstered her ax and flashed through a few handseals while whispering under his breath before sinking into the ground.

"What sort o' sorcery 's this?" the dwarf demanded as he spun around, looking for his opponent.

_"Not sorcery, magic, or anything of the like. Something that only the ninja of the Elemental Countries know. Allow me to offer you a taste of ninjutsu,"_ Hinata's voice came from nowhere and yet everywhere at the same time (AN: that doesn't make any sense does it?).

As the dwarf made another turn, a pair of hands phased out of the ground and grabbed his ankles before dragging them, and him, down underground (AN: sort of like what Kitty does to Juggernaut in the third X-Men movie, but the dwarf was dragged all the way under, head included). Hinata phased out of the ground before called her mount back before moving to follow the others.

_'I'm just lucky that he underestimated me and had little knowledge of jutsu, had he been prepared then I would have lost,'_ Hinata thought as her mount ran after the rest of the group.

The human woman looked over her shoulder at the approaching group and hopped off her horse in the same moment drawing a rifle and firing at the one in the lead, that one being Sasuke.

"I'll handle her, the rest of you go," Shino said as he leapt from his raptor.

The human woman loaded another round as the wolf from before charged at Shino, barking and growling. Shino gave a slight smirk before a wave of bugs flew from him towards the wolf and settled in between its fur. Before the wolf came within ten feet of Shino, it yelped in pain and began scratching and biting at the carnivorous bugs feasting on its flesh.

"Kyshu!" the human cried in horror as she shot at Shino who dissolved into a pile of bugs.

That same pile of bugs flew towards her in a swarm that settled upon her and started consuming her chakra. Frantic, she dropped a smoke bomb, the smoke chasing the bugs away. The bugs reformed into Shino up on a tree branch across and above his opponent. With a growl, she pulled out a yellow vial and chugged the contents down.

Shino raised an eyebrow before sending in another wave of bugs. To his surprise, she ignored the wave and took aim right at him. The bullet from her rifle punched through his chest, going through his right lung and out the other side. Shino's eyes widened when he felt a strange poison coursing through his veins, even as the lung filled up with blood. Reaching into his pocket, he fumbled to grab what would save his life just as his opponent walked up to him and placed the barrel of her rifle at his forehead.

BANG

"DAMN HEARTHSTONES!" the human hunter cried out in frustration as her bullet passed through where Shino's head was, key word being was.

One side effect of the Aburame clan using hearthstones was that due to how close they worked with their insects was that any of said insects outside of their body were brought along for the ride, showing where there had been a black mass, was now a partially eaten wolf corpse. With worried eyes, the above hunter knelt next to the corpse of her companion and began preparing a spell to bring her companion back to life.

However she failed to take one thing into account, that spell prevents you from focusing on anything other than it while it was being cast. That was a major opening, one that Hinata took advantage of as she rode in and slammed her shield into the huntress's head. Hinata hopped off her mount and easily saw that the huntress was knocked out at the very least.

_'I hope the others can get Tsunade without me, but we can't pass this chance up,'_ Hinata thought as she prepared the huntress to be taken to the interrogation section of ANBU.

Naruto growled before saying, "We don't have time for this, Taiju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Sasuke's eyes widened when he heard Naruto using that particular jutsu. For Naruto to use the multi version of the Shadow Clone when for him using regular shadow clones would kill anyone else attempting the multi, he was not taking any chances.

The result of the jutsu stopped the Alliance soldiers in their tracks. For a one mile radius there were clones on every possible surface. The remaining members of the retrieval team moved to the trapped Alliance soldiers and Tsunade, clones moving away from them to form a path. The retrieval team soon arrived to see Tsunade and her companions frozen in place from a multitude of Frost Novas. With a smirk, Sasuke shoved a special hearthstone into Tsunade's mouth, knowing that Tsunade would show off by attempting to bite through the rock using her super-strength technique. However the chakra from the technique would activate the hearthstone. This particular hearthstone didn't lead to an inn, it was a kind developed for capturing prisoners that lead to a special prison cell. That cell had been warded and enchanted so powerfully that even the veterans of Outland could barely create a smudge.

Given that most veterans from Outland could beat Tsunade with both arms behind their backs, there was no way that Tsunade could get out.

As Tsunade vanished, Naruto turned to the Alliance soldiers and said in broken Common, "Tell King Wrynn Tsunade stay here. The clones watch you till all gone."

With that, the retrieval team used their own hearthstones to return to Konoha as the shadow clones began to disperse.

Back in Konoha, the retrieval team appeared in the inn next to the Hokage Tower before heading towards the ANBU detention center where Tsunade should have been hearthed to. As they descended down the stairs into the underbelly of Konoha's sewer networks they thought about the other members of the retrieval team and hoped that they were okay.

Naruto gave a sad smile as he looked into the cell that Tsunade had been hearthed to. Her clothes had been changed to prisoner garb during the trip, and the seals and wards within the cell dispersed her genjutsu showing a woman aged more than her years would suggest. Sitting next to her was the hunter that was part of the Alliance team in the same clothes as Tsunade rubbing a large goose egg on her head the size of a softball.

Tsunade glared at Naruto and growled out, "This is your fault brat. If it weren't for you then I wouldn't be stuck here."

"Your situation is the result of your own choices. Do not blame me for the consequences," Naruto calmly said before turning around and walking back to the Hokage Tower.

After taking a hidden route into the basement of the Hokage Tower (the place was his playground as a little kid, so of course he'd know more about it than anyone else) the three made their way up to the Hokage's office and entered said office.

"Back already?" Hayato asked with a surprised expression on his face.

"Mission success. Senju Tsunade has been returned to Konoha," Naruto said before giving a briefing of what happened on the mission starting when they left the village gates that the three had been a part of. Upon finishing their report, Hayato nodded before speaking.

"Hinata-san returned with the Alliance prisoner around ten minutes before the three of you did. Shino-san and Rock-san were both unable to defeat their opponents and were forced to use hearthstones to get to the hospital. From preliminary reports the worgen that Rock-san fought disabled him with blunt force trauma to the upper portion of his spinal column. Shino-san had a bullet wound that was a through-and-through on the right side of his chest. Shizune-san is keeping an eye on both of them. It is my belief that she feels the need to make up for them getting hurt going after Tsunade."

The trio nodded before being dismissed and going to the hospital to see Shino and Lee. Odds were Hinata was already at the hospital waiting to visit the pair. All three were worried for their comrades, and for that reason reached the hospital in near record time. They met with Hinata in the lobby who with a glance and jerk of her head directed the three to just outside the emergency ward before stopping and beginning to speak:

"Lee's going to be fine, his spine was simply stunned. He's able to walk, but the medics want to keep him overnight for observation in order to make sure that his spine's okay. Shino's in critical condition, when he hearthed in the medics gave him a Troll's Blood potion thinking that would be all that was needed. Unfortunately it seems that Shino's beetles and his special anatomy due to his bond with them caused the potion to, for lack of a better term, backfire. The potion forced all of Shino's beetles out in a gory burst and started to try to remove the locations where his bugs reside. The medics are trying to stop the potion from doing so, because if the potion does that then Shino will die due to his body being dependent upon his beetles."

Everyone's eyes widened in shock. This was the first instance of a Troll's Blood potion having a detrimental effect. Even people who had allergies to healing potions suffered no ill effects from Troll's Blood potions. It was unheard of for such a thing to happen. If Shino lived it was quite possible that he would be unable to continue as a ninja due to the fact that no one knew what would happen to him.

"How long until the potion wears off?" Shikamaru questioned, worried for the normally speechless boy.

Hinata glanced at a clock before responding, "Twenty seven more minutes before it's over. His bugs have gone back into his body in an attempt to purge the potion from his system, but we won't know if it's effective or not until a medic comes out to tell us."

The group of four sat outside the emergency ward waiting for someone to tell them something about Shino. Ten minutes after the four arrived, a blood elf priest walked out and looked at the group before nodding with a slight smile.

"It was touch and go for a little bit, but we managed to flush the potion out of his system. We're going to make a notice not to give the Aburame Troll's Blood potions anymore, so in a way it was a fortunate discovery," the priest told them before turning to Hinata and asked, "Were you able to get it?"

Hinata pulled a large blue flask out of her bag and handed it to the priest who chugged it down before wiping his mouth on his sleeve.

"Thanks, here's the silver for it."

Naruto blinked as Hinata pocketed the coins before asking her, "Were you just paid for making a mana potion?"

"Yup, it's the strongest I've made yet and the alchemists that have set up shop in Konoha said that they are running out of stuff to teach me about making potions," Hinata said as the three left the hospital and continued to their standard training ground.

_"I just started taking lessons on engineering, I know it doesn't fit with the standard rogue methodology but what can I say? I'm a guy, I love explosions,"_ Sasuke commented with a slight smirk.

Naruto and Hinata laughed at Sasuke's statement before Naruto stilled and softly asked, "Sasuke, Hinata, do you think we're ready?"

The two blinked in surprise at the question.

_"What do you mean?"_

"Can't you tell? There's a storm coming, and I don't know if we're ready to face it. There is talk about preparing for a combined assault against the Lich King by both the Horde and the Alliance. Not to mention rumors about Deathwing, Arthas and twisted new undead experiments, plus there is something up with Verimathras. I don't care what Aunt Sylvanas says, I don't trust the dreadlord."

The two other members of Team Seven paused as they thought about what Naruto had said. He was right. Were they strong enough? They didn't know. They weren't nearly ready to even consider passing through the Dark Portal. There was so much that they weren't prepared for. Even with his endless clones Naruto still was helpless against a fair number of demons and even a majority of the undead in the Plaguelands, and those undead were nothing compared to the ones in Northrend.

"I don't know if we're ready Naruto. But what do you suggest that we do? Roll over and give up? All this angst doesn't suit you."

Naruto's brow furrowed as Hinata and Sasuke felt a brief burst of mana from him, the excess forming a glowing blue eye-like symbol over his head before dispersing. After a few moments Naruto made a suggestion: "What about a training trip? A shinobi or team is permitted to take training trips for a period of time upwards of a year provided regular updates are made."

_"That could possibly work, plus the rules have changed a bit with the Godiame attempting to bring Konoha closer to the other races of the Horde. We could go out to assist other parts of the Horde and combine that into a training trip."_

"We'll need to talk to the Godiame in order to finalize it, but that could work."

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"So the three of you wish to travel to the other parts of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms on a training trip that will last for about three years. You don't know where exactly you'll go, outside of various Horde outposts and doing missions for them before moving on. Did I miss anything?" Hayato asked as he glanced up at Team Seven from the paperwork in front of him.

_"No, that was everything. This could work as part of a first step towards bringing Konoha closer to the Horde, after all if the 'Last Uchiha' finds the other races of the Horde worthy than half the Council will jump on any chance to tighten alliances,"_ Sasuke quipped with a half-grin.

Hayato chuckled as he nodded in agreement to Sasuke's statement before grabbing a blank sheet of paper and quickly writing out a slightly modified training trip form. The original required weekly reports, a specific location, and a time frame, this one simply required reports every few months and confirmations from various Horde outposts that they got missions from. Leaving three lines for them to sign and placing it in front of them, Team Seven swiftly did so before pricking their fingers and letting a drop of blood drip next to their signature.

"So where do you plan to start?" Hayato asked as he filed the document away.

Team Seven glanced at each other before turning back to Hayato and Naruto answered, "To wherever the winds shall take us."

AN: FINALLY! I've had the majority of this chapter done for months, but couldn't get past the part where Naruto's talking about a storm coming. I wanted the rest to be a bit longer, but with it approaching a year since I've updated this fic, I finally said to myself "Screw it," and just tied up what I had. Next up will be a sequel where Team Seven is sent to Middle Earth, hopefully I'll be able to make each book an individual chapter and a epilogue detailing them getting back to Azeroth before the final part of the series will detail their fight against Akatsuki and Arthas.


	10. Goodbye

It occurred to me earlier today that it has been well over a year since my last update of any of my stories. A little over a week ago was the one year anniversary of the death of my father. The last year has been mostly focused on taking over and managing the online business he had so I haven't had much time for writing.

To be honest though, even if he hadn't passed away I probably wouldn't have written much. My interests have been steadily drifting away from fanfiction over the last few years and the fact that I've written barely half a chapter in the last year only reinforces this. So while I'll probably continue reading fanfiction, I'm declaring all of my stories abandoned. If anyone is interested in picking up where I've left off or rebooting any of mine let me know. Odds are I'll give approval.


End file.
